I take a daily walk in the woods along the lake and often see things that I want to use in my art making practice. It can be anything from weeds, leaves and sticks or inspiration for landscapes.

Those tangible things can be directly used in the gelatin printmaking process. I thinned down a tiny sprig of pine needles to make the prints below.

I have been collecting more fleeting inspiration in the form of cast shadows. The sun needs to be strong and calm winds help.

The bright sun simplifies the plants into shapes, and then I can more easily draw the leafy image. I does help to try to take the photo in the same angle and orientation that you want to draw it. Flipping in a photo program seemed off balance or wonky.

It can be very satisfying to do a few of these cast shadow drawing and fill them in with black ink or paint.

Blurry pictures create room for interpretation. I notice that leaves are all different shapes and when a few group together they make even weirder shapes.

The great thing about capturing shadows is that they don’t take up any studio space. And I always leave a few images on my phone, so I always have something as a drawing reference.

I encourage you to start to notice cast shadows and bring them back to your studio.

One bright sunny day, in the studio, I tried casting some shadows and capturing them at the same time. I could have used another hand, but I love the shapes created. I may not have seen them by looking at the real branch.

Enjoy!