Natural History Illustration 101: 6 weeks

I recently completed a 6 week illustration course called Natural History Illustration 101. It was run online by the University of Newcastle in Australia. It was an excellent experience and I highly recommend it. 

Here I have assembled all the work I completed over the 6 weeks. I've done this to get a view of my progression throughout the course.

Week 1 - Calibration of tools

Week 2 - Observational Drawing of 3 objects

1. Coral

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2. Amethyst

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3. Sea Urchin

Week 3 - Field Work & Notes

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Spring time water hole, waiting for birds

Week 4 - Botanical Structure

Notes and dissections of a pansy

Lifecycle of a pansy bud, with colour

Week 5 - Mammal and Bird Structure

(aka field trip to the ROM)

A brown bear, drawn using a bounding box and units.

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An arctic fox, drawn using a bounding box and units.

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A snow goose, drawn using geometric shapes and loose topography lines.

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A Canada Goose in mid-flight, drawing using geometric shapes
and shape-blocking for wing structure.

Week 6 - Rendering

This week's drawing made use of all the skills learned so far.

Preliminary drawing: geometric shapes, topography lines, indication of shadow.

Rendering in progress, working from light to dark.

Completed: Moulting Marine Iguana