Forest

I finally finished the forest drawing I started a few weeks back.
My goal for this year is to revive my personal practice and make at least one non-commissioned illustration per month. Mostly I would like to do more observational drawings. This was my homework for January:

For those who are interested in such things, I include below a few research sketches collected over the late Summer, early Fall. Most of these scenes are composite drawings. I don’t have the time to sit and draw an actual forest au plein air, but I still want the vegetation to look as ‘realistic’ as possible.

I have also added a few hidden details to make the scene more interesting. Since we’re now in the middle of Winter, I wanted to capture a sense of death, rebirth, and interconnectedness of things. The insect feeding on plants, the salamander feeding on insects, the crow feeding on salamanders, and plants and mushrooms feeding on dead animals of all kinds. Life comes full circle.

I know things are hard sometimes but hang in there! Spring is going to come (eventually) and thanks, as always, for following me.
PS: this seems somehow topical since this is also my 200th post – I can’t believe how far this humble blog has come!