Students' work. Above left: skull drawing in charcoal on tinted paper with white highlighting. A sketch of Colonial Peak and Diablo Lake is in pencil. Above right: pen and ink exercises are done over quick line drawings done earlier while out on the Deer Creek Trail. The butterfly drawing, done from a classroom bug box specimen, is stippled in ink, and the bird skull is rendered in charcoal.
To look at a massive stone peak, and with a pencil put the image of it on paper; to see the geometry of a moth, and render it in ink…how remarkable it is to be human, and to be able to draw such huge or minuscule magnificence! Students began their drawing lessons by looking closely at a Douglas fir
cone and quickly moved on to sketching an awe-inspiring lake and mountain vista on the first day of
class. Then came the lichen and moss-covered bark, the skulls, the
insects, the campus library building (granted, this lesson was a quick
one), and the drawing with sumi ink using found natural objects. My goal
for the students in the class at the North Cascades Institute Learning Center on Diablo Lake was for them to learn about drawing using
the local flora, fauna, and landscape as subjects. They did this very
well, and with notable bravery & great esprit du corps! All students
considered themselves either beginners, or beginners with some long-ago
drawing experience. None had done any drawing, to speak of, directly from
nature. By the end of the three days (June 28-30), each student knew what it felt like to see, to really see, the extraordinary natural world, and to be able to record what they saw with new skills.
Focused work was done both in the beautiful Learning Center classroom and out on the trails.
Above left: the student who did these drawings had never sketched prior to the class, but bravely gave it her all and did very well, labeling her landscape "My First Sketch." Above center: these drawings were done by a student who learned to see shadow and proportion by drawing the natural objects. Above right: extensive field notes on the page help students remember how to observe, and what to consider, when drawing en plein aire, or, directly outdoors.
The final exercise of the three day course was one that broke from using traditional drawing materials. After collecting a natural item from the ground outside the classroom, students experimented with dipping these into rich, black sumi ink and finding out what kind of marks their "tools" made. More time doing this would have been fun for this hard working group.
We were fortunate to have two knowledgeable resident assistants in the drawing class. Katie Roloson helped with classroom logistics and enriched the drawing curriculum with related wildlife legends from the Native American lore. In this photo, naturalist / grad student Justin McWethy (in the cap) is discussing the bear claw scars in the alder tree. He also expertly set up all the specimens for us to draw in the classroom. While on our way up the Sourdough Creek Waterfall Trail (where this photo was taken), we also identified and learned about wildflowers, native ferns and trees. Ultimately, students selected individual spots from which to sketch.
To learn about other courses held at this spectacular natural location at the edge of the North Cascades National Park, click here.
Jocelyn Curry 