There’s a graduate class this semester that brings art students into the museum collections to sketch. They were okay with me joining in, so now I’ve got a good excuse to paint again! (Do I have a great job or what?) It’ll be fun to try museum specimens other than orchids.
The first collection was invertebrate zoology. I decided on a crazy colorful "strawberry urchin" Chondrocidarius bervispina. Hard to believe that's a real animal...
Here's my attempt. I'm not entirely happy with it, but it's not bad considering it was only 3 hours start to finish. I got up partway through and another student took my seat, so I wasn't looking at it from the same angle (as above) when I drew this one. If I had this to myself I would have gotten the proportions better, but since I was a guest I sat to the side and drew more from memory than direct observation.
Next up is birds!