And the answer is...

.

(click to enlarge)

..butternut squash!

Thanks for all of your guesses; most were on the right track! And thank you for your patience—it's been a busy week, and I didn't get this done as soon as I'd planned.

I'm happy with how the outside turned out, but I'm not wild about the inside (which you'd think would be more interesting). Sometimes I just lose interest in a piece that drags out too long; maybe that's the case here. But I do love to eat the inside—it's one of my favorite foods!

Happy First Day of Autumn!

A Trio of Buttercup Squash

Prismacolor colored pencil on Stonehenge paper

(click to enlarge)

I love going to the grocery store or farmer's market in the fall. The piles of pumpkins, brightly colored gourds and winter squash are irresistible to me—and such a variety of shapes and colors! Many of these buttercup squash (not to be confused with butternut squash) look like little lidded jars or pots. They're pretty cute, and after we try them for dinner tonight, I'll let you know how they taste!

Here are some shots of my "models" and work-in-progress:

After I do the sketch, I often scan it and print it out at different sizes, so that I can pick just the right size for the final drawing.

Greens are tricky to scan: You can see that the greens are much more accurate in the daylight photo than in the scans...hopefully the final scan at the top of the post shows the true colors, or at least close!

If you're not all squashed out, 

take a look at my drawing of my all-time favorite winter squash here.

Happy First Day of Autumn!

The never-ending gourd drawing

5" x 7" Prismacolor colored pencil on Strathmore Bristol Vellum

"Know when to stop." Well, I'm not sure that I stopped at the right time on this piece—some areas are a bit overdone, others could use more work—but sometimes you have had enough of one drawing, you know? I love pumpkins, squashes and gourds—their amazing colors and their lumpy, bumpy shapes are such fun to draw. (In fact, the turban squash that I drew a couple of years ago is still one of my favorite drawings.)  And they're very forgiving; who's going to know if you moved the bumps around a bit?

Here are some shots I took along the way. (Obviously, I'm not great at color-correcting scans and photos, and I find that orange tones are some of the trickiest!)

Illustration Friday: Crooked

a Couple of Cuddling Crooknecks 

Hmmm...maybe I should do an alphabet series...

I've been trying to think of a good subject for the topic, "crooked", while repeatedly walking past a huge pile of these squash on my kitchen counter. Obviously, it finally dawned on me that crookneck squash fit the bill. The plants are getting scraggly and overgrown, but they're still producing like crazy. 

I'm annoyed with myself because I rushed a bit while working on these shadows and made them too dark; it's tricky when you have a yellow subject on a white background. Then I tried to soften them by adding a little crosshatching, which wasn't all that successful either. Ah well, live and learn: Slow down. And plant fewer squash next year.

Turban Squash

Turban Squash

Prismacolor colored pencils on Strathmore Bristol, vellum finish

"I wonder how they do that?!" exclaimed an older woman in the grocery line as she pointed to my turban squash.

Isn't nature amazing? Of all of the winter squash and pumpkins that I adore, this one has got to be the most exotic. There were lots of them at the farmer's market this weekend, and when you view them right-side-up, they do look like little heads sporting turbans.

This squash was the perfect little model: no wilting like a flower does, no drying out like blueberries and tomatoes do. It just sat there in all of its I-can-last-all-winter smugness. I guess that's why I like drawing botanicals like nuts, pine cones and winter squash—there's no hurry. So, I took my time (and used almost every pencil that I own in the green and orange families) and even made work-in-progress scans. As is often the case, I wasn't really happy with this final scan...the reds look a little splotchy and bright. So I took a quick shot with my iPhone4:

Not bad, huh? I stopped short when it came to adding a shadow, as I kind of like how it looks without it. What do you think? Does it look unfinished without one?

Here are the WIP views (click to enlarge)

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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