Sarah Melling: Pencils and Paper

Happy 27th birthday to my son, who brought me this sea urchin shell—packed in his backpack—all the way home from his recent trip to New Zealand! He knows that I have a fascination with drawing examples of radial symmetry in nature (often based upon multiples of 5), which I've previously posted about here.

Before I sat down to draw this "test" (which, I learned, is the proper terminology for a sea urchin shell), I was curious whether or not it was as perfectly round as it appeared to my eye. So, I printed out a little template of a circle the same diameter as the shell. I laid the shell over it on my lightbox, and...wow! Mother Nature never ceases to amaze.

Since the shell is composed of a beautiful almost monochromatic blue-grey-green palette, I ended up using a toned Strathmore charcoal paper (the smooth side) and only graphite and 2 Prismacolor pencils: Jade Green, and White Verithin. (Sorry for the uneven lighting; I was too lazy to scan, so I just shot this at my desk with my iPhone.)

As I examined the shell closely, I was curious about the texture of the surface, and did a little research—they're fascinating creatures! The raised bumps are where the spines had been attached with an ingenious ball-and-socket mechanism, and all of the tiny holes are where the soft tube feet once extended. What an amazing little structure!