Sample Writing
This is an example of a journal reflection from Botanical Illustration I: Basic Drawing Techniques, submitted by a student for whom English is her second language, and shared with her permission. She presents a reflective view of how her perspective is changing, as well as dialogue about how she is progressing. I find it to be a quality reflection, of appropriate length.
"After a little catch up with last week's assignments, there are a couple of things that has change in just one week. I have just remembered how to find the time for things that matters and I started to enjoy the fun on simple things.'
'One of my new hobbies nowadays is collection of leafs. So now, during my afternoon walks I have started to collect exotic leafs, some for their form other for the contrast of colors between the body and their veins. I have found an special interest for one we called “uva de playa” or Coccoloba uvifera or Seagrape. Is a beautiful leaf and it has all the elements for a painting theme, the tree is gorgeous, the colors of the leaf are very dramatic and even when the leaf has dried, it is still beautiful.'
'The assignments this week were a bit challenging, because it is really hard to look at one subject and try to draw only the negative space…especially because that’s space is almost inexistent in certain occasion and unimportant in others. The hardest thing is that when you actually got it in your mind it is pretty difficult to put it on the paper. And it just gets worst when you work with small pieces and details like petals or some forms of the leaf. One of the things that caught my attention was that once you start with the process you tend to mix between seeing the negative and the positive space, so you are able to make some correction taking in consideration the positive space of your drawing. I know it require a lot of work and practice to get it done in less time and more effectively. I have to tried several times to finish the assignment 3.2 and I wasn’t very happy with it. I know that will keep me a bit busy this weekend trying to get more practice on the subject.'
'The technique used to work with the negative spaces reminds me a little what we do when we work with watercolor and the requirements for leaving blank areas for the brighten sections of the composition. I have always found this really hard, probably because you have to plan in advance the whole scheme of colors before and it is not as free and flexible as other mediums like acrylic or oil, especially when you made a mistake. I was just thinking about the further uses besides drawing, like in painting with watercolors, a medium that is just perfect when you work with botanical illustration.'
'I will try the collage assignment tomorrow and probably will give it a second try to the assignment 3.2 for further comments."