Step 9. Finish

I finished my drawing of nuts. From left to right: walnut, pecan, hazelnut, almond, and that crazy Brazil nut that didn't want to cooperate with being cracked open neatly. But, it worked out. Abrigado!

I've been setting the alarm to wake up an hour early in the morning to have to work on projects. That's how I finished this project, by getting up early and working bit by bit every day with my morning coffee. It was easy to work slowly with this botanical drawing, of course, since the nuts don't wilt or change from day to day.

Step 5. Work in progress

I guess it's true. 

Sometimes a tough nut has a beautiful soft heart inside. The trick to finding the heart is figuring out how to crack the shell just right. Or, just rely on luck I suppose.

This drawing is the beginning of what I hope to be a one-page study on a variety of nuts. 

Now that I started, though, I want to try going big - Georgia O'Keefe style - with the walnut. There is so much beautiful detail going on with the hard shell and the intricate inside. I want to get all of it on paper, to get to know it as intimately as possible and show off all the sweet stuff. I need more space to do that. 

I need to learn to paint, too, since colored pencil would be tediously slow on a big piece.  

But, first things first. I'll finish what I started with the nut study. 

Step 4.

I started with a small pear late at night.

 

I only had time to draw the pear, but I left space on the page because I wanted, eventually, a still life. 

By the time I got back to this page in my notebook, a few weeks had gone by and the pear had been eaten.

I added a walnut as the next item in the still life, but it didn't work out. The two things are in an awkward relationship sitting on the page like this. They need to be either closer together or further apart to relieve the tension between them, sort of like with some people I know.

The drawing wasn't working out and I wanted to quit. But, maybe sticking around would be worth it, I told myself. If anything, I could certainly use composition practice.

I like how the Brazil nut on the left turned out, but the still life is still looking awkward.

I thought adding a hazelnut away from the group might break up the tension, but it didn't work. The lone nut looks like a lone nut, off on its own. 

It was time to walk away, but I didn't know how to end it, to break off from this group without leaving them hanging in the air. I added a little something on the page for them to sit on, and then I cracked the nuts open and ate them.

Today's song.