Hello interweb. Today’s adventure has been a departure from the beach study. Today, we went to the Abacoa Greenway.

I knew from the very start, I wanted to work on things that were vibrant in color.
What ended up grabbing my eye was the orange shelf fungus, scientifically known as the Pycnoporus sanguineus. The funny thing about this a nickname for it is the “tree eater”, which I find to be very amusing. With that being said, it is invasive to Florida.

Sometimes, that’s just the way it goes. Sometimes you work well with a medium, and other times you don’t. I’m curious to see how this piece would look if I redid them in watercolor…

​Word Count: 183

Hey there, I was expecting you. Today was more of a work day. I had the intention of painting shells, but my bird feathers from last week were calling to me. Before starting, Professor Lemeh told us about the bird feather index, and naturally, I made a mental note to check it out seeing as I still had no clue what one of my feathers were. 
 
I began sketching with an H pencil just to shake it up a little. From there, I followed the general shapes of the feathers and went as far as to measure everything. With the hour and a half I had left, I began to watercolor finding hints of colors not overtly evident like ultramarine blue in the brown feathers. My painting palette stayed within burnt umber, burnt sienna, a smidge of yellow ochre, a dash of ultramarine blue, as well as a few swipes of white India ink to produce this 3 hour rending.

Not too shabby if I say so myself. I really enjoyed doing these, and wish I could spend more time on them. Maybe this will be my symposium piece...

Word Count: 193

Hello, hello, hello! Today, we went to coral cove!

I’m unsure of the rock, but the little piece of foliage on top of it is seaweed. The specific seaweed is called sargassum, which is scientifically known as Sargassum fluitans.

I also took pictures of barnacles. 

They were embedded in what one would called coquina or shell hash. There are a few different species in this sole picture, but the one by itself in the lower half of the picture is called the mossy chiton or Mopalia muscosa.

I did cave and picked up two containers full of shells. It happens. However, as I was about to leave, I spotted what would piqued my interest: bird feathers. Did I snap a picture of them in the sand dunes? No. I was too excited about my find. The perfect specimens to play with texture and line piqued my interest and then, Dr. Moore came over. Naturally, I began to write down identifications of the bird feathers. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the feathers in particular, but here is what I did get a picture of.

This particular feather is one from a song bird called the brown thrasher, scientifically known as Toxostoma rufum. Here are some crude, and when I say crude, I mean crude​, sketches and field notes. 

Tune in next week to see what I can do with some time.
​Word count: 272

Hey there. This is going to be a bit of a shorter post. We were supposed to go to Coral Cove today, but this Florida weather is going a bit bananas. That's okay though. We got to learn about microscopes from Dr. Richardson for the first hour or so of class. When using a microscope, the most important thing is to write down the magnification you're using to observe and render your specimen. Afterwards, we were able to use some of the different microscopes. There were only 8 available so the other 22 of us got around to look at the assignment Professor Lemeh assigned us last week. All I have to say is I'm not much of a fan of pine cones anymore.

It took me a lot longer to copy this pine cone then I anticipated. At least 5 hours in fact. Going into class, I found it interesting how everyone had different approaches. I eyeballed it and hoped for the best. Others gridded it, traced, and even took digital captures to decide where they were drawing. It was pretty cool. The biggest note: take a step back and look at your work to decide if your sizing is right. We were then sent out to collect items from the outdoors. I've done a leaf already, so I thought I'd shake it up a bit and try something different. 

Acorns! Specifically, a live oak acorn. The live oak is scientifically known as Quercus virginiana. Its group is the Dicot and its family is the Fagaceae. It is a native tree to the south of North America. 

I ended up taking pictures at a 4.5 magnification of the acorn shell, and they came out pretty cool. 

When it came to painting, I only painted one fully through. The second I have partially painted. This is a look into how I layer my colors and how I arrive at my final depictions. 

Word count: 322