Smoothie77 is a great teacher. Even though he also teaches in watercolor and ink, I’m still firmly immersed in graphite. I’m able to follow the lessons about creating mood and detail and then turn around and apply them to some of my own ideas. Below, I followed the tutorial on drawing the little Chiffchaff and then tried some of the same techniques using a photo of a Northern Flicker I had taken.

I keep practicing landscapes with trees, foliage, and grasses. This was a challenging tutorial, and it got a little blurry near the end.

When I need a break from tackling landscape, I return to birds. This starling was gobbling crab apples, probably stopping on its way south, and I took about a dozen pictures of it.

The two vignettes on the top were Smoothie77 tutorials. I learned how to leave items out of photos and simplify rather than include the overwhelming amount of details from real life. The bottom two are based on my own photos. I like them both but realize that creating a nice, dreamy border does take some skill and planning–next time!