Carnival Squash, Three Ways

Prismacolor colored pencils on Strathmore Bristol Vellum

This week's topic on Illustration Friday is "Disguise", which brought to mind this drawing of a Carnival squash that I did last fall.  While I was drawing the colorful, mottled skin, I kept thinking that it looked like a camouflage pattern. I'm sure that Mother Nature had some purpose in mind when creating this botanical disguise.

This was the first of what was going to be a series: 3 views (top, side, bottom) of the same fruit or vegetable.  As I've mentioned before, I'm fascinated by the patterns and shapes found in nature. Maybe it's my background in drawing architectural plans and views, but I enjoy comparing the "plan view", and the "side elevation", etc.  I love that the cross-section of the stem of this squash (like many fruits and vegetables) is a 5-pointed star shape, and the number of sections in pumpkins or squash is almost always a multiple of five. 

Now that I've revisited this piece, I'm all jazzed to get going on the series again.  And even more so since fall is almost here: pumpkins, gourds and winter squashes—with their rich colors and their lumpy, bumpy shapes—are some of my favorite things to draw!

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