Observing and Illustrating on the Oregon Coast

As a science illustrator, Nora’s work involves careful observation and a lot of patience. She uses many technical skills she has learned over the years to generate illustrations that illuminate the natural world. Rather than teaching specific subject matter, like birds or mushrooms, this workshop will focus on introducing you to techniques used to create artwork in the natural science illustration style. You may bring your own reference photos/objects (or if you don’t have subject matter you want to work on, Nora will bring many ideas) and we’ll spend three days developing skills to create meaningful illustrations.

Nora Sherwood has a professional certificate in natural science illustration from the University of Washington and is a working artist on the Oregon coast. Her science illustration work is guided by Baba Dioum's famous quote, "In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we have been taught." In addition to commissioned work for museums, interpretive signage, commercial products and scientific journals, Nora shows work in galleries around the Pacific Northwest and teaches workshops.

• You will work in both graphite and color in this workshop.

• For graphite studies, please bring a sketch book, a good set of drawing pencils/erasers, etc.

• For color studies, you may choose to work in either watercolor or colored pencil. Please bring the appropriate materials based on your choice!

• For colored pencils, please be sure to bring professional grade pencils (a 24 pencil set of Prismacolor Premier pencils is a good place to start if you aren't set up to work in colored pencil). You'll also want good drawing paper and an eraser.

• For watercolor, please bring professional grade tube or pan paints, brushes (I like synthetic rounds in smaller sizes such as 4, 2, 0), palette, etc.

If you have any questions about supplies, please reach out at info@sitkacenter.org and we will connect you with your instructor.

• professional quality Bristol board drawing paper

• 300lb. Arches hot press watercolor paper