One more picture from Friday’s Observation to Abstraction session:

Out of all the work I did, this is the most representational. You probably can’t read everything in the picture – for example, that little eruption at the bottom is the top of a hyacinth, preparing to flower – but you can see the stems. You might even have guessed the plant type from some of the details although, without colour, you probably wouldn’t have pegged it as Cornus stolonifera (Yellow-barked Dogwood).

I can’t remember the last time I did a charcoal and chalk drawing. Working on grey paper, you can darken, lighten and, to some extent, even undo the marks. What I am most pleased about with this one is the subtle changes of tonal value along the stems, which along with crossing twigs and shadows, generates a reasonably three dimensional appearance.