Drawing Class Begins: (A tulip)

I didn't think I ever had more than one week off between semesters, so I was quite pleased to hear we would have a one month break. Well, my one month summer break from school was great. However, as any time off does - it flew by in a flash! I am now in "Drawing" class; which should explain my lack of posting. Back to the busy life!

Here is some of my work from the first week of class (the next four weeks of work will be posted daily):

Our first assignment was to draw an object in nature using regular drawing pencils and white charcoal paper, so I chose this red and yellow tulip...

I drew dark to portray the red and lightly to show the yellow tips of the petals. I tried to shade with the veins of the petals so they would come through some. My classmates were pleased; however, my teacher was not. Though it didn't state so in the instruction - we were apparently to show the entire object as well as the background. She really continued to stress this throughout our work, so you'll see a lot of background information in my future submissions. She is by far the toughest teacher I have had yet.

Here are a few of the comments I received in class (this is also for my own record, so feel free to skip if you're bored... lol):

"Sara -This is amazing - the life in the tulip is great! I could see it as any color because you got the tone of the petals and softness of the natural movement right on!! Very inspiring... keep up the great work =)" - Michelle V

"It is important that in your next drawing-you draw the whole flower, don't cut off the object half way. Put the whole flower on the surface and deal with the whole surface (table, chair), the shadow that the objects casts-give the viewer as much info as possible." - Prof. Yevgeniya Baras

"Sara, I think you have done an excellent job. Your flower looks great with its tone and everything. I am very impressed. You definitely appear to have a really strong ability for drawing. I do not know how long you have been drawing but it looks like you are a pro." - Kevin Rhoades

"Nice work on the tulip Sara! You are definitely not afraid to use dark values. That's very important. I agree that if this were a panned out view more, this would make for a more finished and artistic piece. This would work if you were to focus on all the fine details. I can't wait to see more!" - Candice Bruegeman