Blog: Illustrating Science, and what happened along the way
-Krista AnandakuttanCrumbling cliffs in my studio
A detail of my fresco painting of coastal a cliff, Sonoma County CA-- in progress. Natural pigments on a fresco secco panel made of burlap and plaster. The striations of color and patterns of erosion, horizontal planes turned to vertical: to a geologist these cliffs...
fresco panel: ocean
looking down at the ocean from a cliff, Sonoma County CA fresco secco panel This is a detail of a larger fresco secco panel. The colors are natural earth and mineral pigments, white is the plaster underneath. Finished? Possibly. I joke that someone has to stop me,...
Big Sur, CA
Big Sur, CA fresco secco: mineral pigments on plaster and roughspun burlap panel miniature (4" x 5")
sketchbook: late summer
Hazelnuts, a sketch in watercolor, colored pencil and graphite The squirrels are cleaning up under a hazelnut tree. Just a few left-- KA
Looking back for inspiration
Always inspiring (humbling!) to look way, way back, as I work at my desk with a pen and microscope. From the late 1600's: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/012345/full/news.2010.689/slideshow I wish I could see this collection in person! Martin Lister's teenage...
Garlic (what’s at the other end)
Garlic seed head watercolor and graphite Sometimes you just have to drop everything and draw. I let one garlic bulb bloom and was rewarded with a flowering spathe and then seeds (bulbils). This is a study for a rendering of the whole plant: bulb of garlic cloves with...
Out Sketching: the Gualala River
All I did this entire day was a sketch... the Gualala River, in Sonoma County, just inland from its mouth at the Pacific. I also I watched other people skip stones, and canoe, and kayak. -KA
Olive seashells: an Open Studio Demonstration
Olive seashells, mixed media: watercolor, colored pencil, and graphite Today I demonstrated my favorite mixed-media sketching technique for a group of visitors at my open studio (Art at the Source, Sebastopol, CA). Olive seashells, the perfect example of "the more you...
In the Studio: Natural pigment fresco
natural pigments on panel, 16" x 36" Kerala mural tradition of fresco secco Ushas, or Dawn, shoots sunbeams from her lotus bow. She rides in a chariot with the sun and a herald (blowing on a conch shell). I chose to show them all high up in the sky above the clouds,...
New Naturalists: speaking of fire, native bees, and birds’ feet…
On a sunny day at Pepperwood Preserve in Sonoma County, students-- new naturalists-- spoke of seed banks and fire cycles in the chapparal, birds' feet, native bees and flowers that change color, grasses which do and don't belong here, leaf phenology and birds' nests....
In the studio: Anemone
I used mixed media for this close-up (4" x 4"): semi-transparent washes of acrylic paint, with colored pencil and graphite. I like both drawing and painting, and the surface of an acrylic wash holds the colored pencil nicely. This anemone is either a sunburst anemone...
In the studio: natural pigment fresco
Working on a new fresco panel, I thought of posting snapshots of the work as it progresses. Yesterday I transferred a drawing of "Sita", a seated female figure, onto a small panel with a smooth calcium carbonate ground. I...