WEEK 3

For week 3 our Audubon science illustration class were given an assignment to draw ball moss and another specimen of our choice. i chose a dolphin’s thoracic bone.

Ball moss (Tillandsia recurvata) commonly grows as an epiphyte. Ball moss especially favors the shady habitat of the lower and interior limbs of live oaks. The common assumption is that Ball Moss is a parasite but actually the Ball moss derives no nutrients from the tree, it anchors its pseudo-roots into the bark and absorbs water and nutrients from the atmosphere.

To draw the Ball Moss I started with an outline with a sharpie pen to highlight the complexity of the structure. I followed that with a light color green coloring of the entire structure and then added darker green, light brown, dark brown, maroon and black at certain areas to make it look realistic. The center was given darker colors because that is where most of the structure was dead.

For my second specimen: the Dolphin thoracic bone I started with an outline with a H4 pencil and used H2 and a blender (#4) for shading. under the circular head i used hatching to create a gradient and used the blender afterwards to make it look smooth. i also used stippling at certain areas to show the eroded parts of the bone. and i drew this specimen as if the light source was from the bottom right corner, so the shadow will cast on the left upper side.