I really enjoyed this class for two reasons - one is that I am always looking for ways to improve my draftsmanship, and the other is that it gave me an excuse to buy graphite sticks - because if we don’t wake up excited to play with all of our artistic toys, then what’s the point of getting out of bed?

I’ve spent a lot of time studying drawing, breaking big animals down into smaller shapes and I agree that pentimental lines give the drawings a sense of style and character, but some subjects are harder to draw than others, and this class gave me a useful way to make quick studies of tricky creatures.

I love scuba diving, and drawing what I observe underwater - crustations are relatively simple to draw, but cephalopods are surprisingly difficult. Breaking these sinewy, non-symmetrical creatures down into basic shapes can help, but this approach sometimes makes it hard to see the whole creature - the studies of cuttlefish helped me to see the shape of the whole cuttlefish without getting too stuck on the subtle details, which helped me in other projects where I am doing a more detailed drawing.