Week 2 of 365 Days of Art Challenge - Drawing class

Saturday, I took a drawing class at Jerry's Artarama. It wasn't quite what I expected from the description of the class and the sample.  The instructor wanted us to work on toned paper in either tan or gray. I liked the warmer tones of the tan better than the cooler gray. Such a shame I had to buy another art journal, but this was a good excuse to get one! It's actually a 2-part class. In this first class, we worked on line drawings with black Sakura micron pens of various sizes.  In our next class (which I'm not sure yet, I can take), we'll add color. That is really the part of the class that I wanted, as I've never achieved such vivid colors from colored pencils as the instructor's samples show. The second part of class is not until the middle of February. So it will be awhile before I finish this drawing.

The first photo is what I chose to work from. I took it over a year ago when I was visiting my parents in Ohio in the fall.  I got there at the height of the fall colors! A mushroom was peeking out from the leaves that had fallen. I played with the photo in Pixlr Express, a photo-editing app on my tablet. I have Photoshop Elements on my computer, but I'm still learning how to it.

Leaves and Mushrooms. Edited in Pixlr Express. Photo taken Oct 2014 in Ohio.

Leaves and Mushroom line drawing. 8 1/2" x 11" toned tan 80 lb paper.
Black Sakura micron pens from 0.005 to 0.8 in size.

This second photo is my line drawing,  using micron pens of various sizes to ink in all the details and values.  I started it in class, but with arthritis in my hands, I needed to finished it at home. I've never used pens to do all the detail work and the values, so it's a different approach for me. I usually do all the value work with colors.  This has been a challenge for me, but now, I can hardly wait to add color!