Drawing a natural item – a leaf, a shell, an insect – increases your observational skills and knowledge about that item.
From the comfort of your own home, you can try your hand at drawing a specimen from the museum’s collections. We'll post images or videos to give you a clear three-dimensional view of the items. We will be switching out the specimens every few weeks till May 1st.
Our first specimen is a white-tailed deer skull. Feel free to advance the video to a spot that feels interesting to you and pause. Alternatively, use the image gallery below. Sketch your illustration until you're satisfied with the result. This is a great activity for both beginner and advanced illustrators. We'd love to gather the program participants and their illustrations to share what has been created. Please send your illustrations to director@marionmuseum.org. We can't wait to see what you create!
Community Submissions
We encourage everyone to send us copies of your work! We can learn a lot from each other in a community activity such as this.
Our first submission came from Barbara Allen. Barbara wrote:
"As soon as I saw the photograph of the white-tailed deer skull, I thought I might attempt a technique that I've been wanting to try: painting with coffee! I thought that a light wash of coffee in a line-and-wash drawing could possibly mimic the look of weathered bone.
Here's the result!
Thanks again for this wonderful program idea!"
Thanks for the outstanding submission, Barbara!