The document summarizes the speaker's artwork created during a trip to the Manchester Museum. It describes 6 sketches made using pencil: 2 of small blackbirds in flight, 1 of a barn owl face, 1 grasshopper, 1 larger grasshopper, and 1 whip spider. It also describes 2 beetle sketches done in marker. The speaker focused on using shading techniques like lighter strokes and lifted areas with a rubber to make the birds look more realistic, and used a similar approach for the insects, adding details like scales and patterns. Overall the sketches captured objects from the museum in a realistic style within the limitations of using pencil or marker.

1. The first piece of work I will evaluate is the Museum Art I completed on the trip into town
Manchester Museum. The first part of the series of sketches includes birds only. I focused mainly on
birds for this sector to keep my work in order. I used pencil to create these three drawings; two of
small blackbirds in flight and the other the face of a common barn owl. For the smaller birds I chose
to use a similar style of working with softer strokes and lighter tones and shading. I did this by using
the rubber to lift away darker areas and highlight certain areas. I thought this would make it more
realistic and lean away from cartoonish outlining and block shading. For the feathered wings I left
the main area blank and lighter to show the light which shone through the almost transparent wing.
I also smudged the areas below the birds to show they were in motion. For the owl I used darker
strokes and bolder markings, to reflect the bright brown tufts of feather bursting through, and a
block shade for the large, intelligent black eye, with a small highlight. I think these pieces are
successful, however, if I had more time in the museum I would work in some more detail on the owl
head.
The second part of work is the last pieces from the museum. Four of these small sketches are drawn
using pencil as the birds and the remaining two are drawn in black marker. For these sketches I
focused on insects only. The first drawing of the group completed was the grasshopper; it was a full
body sketch, as all the others on this page. I used a light approach to roughly sketch out the areas
first before defining edges, because the insect had complex split sections of skin. I used a darker
tone to shade the back legs on the other side of the body to show where the shadows hit it and the
light did, and then added in smaller details like scales, hairs and patterns. I took the same approach
with the larger grasshopper, except using lighter, softer tones so the overall piece was more
simplistic. The Whip Spider was one of the more difficult, it required a steadier hand, forming the
spindly legs and the joints between, also the stinger and scaled back. I used a continuous stroke to
create this piece, so the shading is all similar throughout. For the beetles I used pencil for one and
marker for the other two. The marker studies were easier to produce taking into account that even a
delicate approach would create a bold, black line. I found shading in marker too difficult; it made the
bugs seem cartoonish and unrealistic, so I block shaded the larger areas on them that were darker,
and left gaps of clear white where the highlights would be.