Painting through the Universe

Since I was very little, I have loved the solar system. I read as many books on the planets as I could find, and in the second grade I memorized the composition and size of each. When we went to the planetarium for a planet-themed show I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world; I'm pretty sure my face hurt afterwards from smiling the whole time.

My fascination with our Solar System has not changed but has grown into a fascination and admiration of the universe and everything it contains. Being always on the look out for ways to combine my interests with art, I stumbled on an idea: why not paint my way through the universe? What better subject material?

My goal is to choose a subject each week, paint it, learn some interesting tidbits about it, and post it on this blog. I would love it if you or anyone you know would like to join me in this artistic endeavor! I'll post the week's subject in advance and then we'll all get to work on our creations. 

I'm going to start with the Solar System and within the Solar System I am going to start with our beloved star: the Sun. 

Take some time this week and draw/sketch/paint the Sun with me!

P.S. I'd love to see your Sun-themed art! Send me a link to or an e-mail with a picture of your art and (if you want) I'll include it here in the Sun post. E-mail address: katyannc [at] gmail [dot] com

Supermoon

 Today is the day of the 3/19/11 supermoon! I'm hoping to be able to catch a glimpse later if the weather doesn't have other plans.

Lots of great posts have been shared about the supermoon (and how is isn't going to cause worldwide disaster). I was particularly inspired by the one from Bad Astronomer to honor this momentous occasion with artistic fun times. The painting below is the result.
 

Note: while he may look like he has super powers, this guy won't cause disasters.

Winter Stoneflies are Pretty Awesome

A few days ago (thanks to twitter) I ran across this great Scientific American Guest Blog post about Winter Stoneflies by Dr. Holly Menninger. Before reading this article I knew very little about stoneflies, not to mention the supercooling winter variety! These critters have some amazing abilities.

The blog post and Dr. Holly's enthusiasm were inspiration for my latest artistic endeavor. What started out as a "quick sketch" turned into a "quick watercolor" and here is the result. I may have to paint more of these little creatures.



Find out more about Dr. Holly Menninger at her website: http://hollymenninger.com/

Up Close and Personal with the Hive

I saw this and just had to snap a picture. It is the honey bee dispay at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh. My biological illustration class visited today to get any last minute drawings and to sketch dinos and whales since they aren't exactly specimens available in our lab. This isn't a dinosaur, but I thought this display was pretty neat.

Larger than life honey bee exhibit at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences

Definitely want to go back and see the Glow: Living Lights exhibit.

Giant Stag Beetle Photo by Russ Creech

I think he's pretty adorable. I wanted to keep him, but in the end we set him free in the woods.

Photo taken by Russ Creech. Used with permission.