parrot still life

1990
graphite & colored pencil on manila paper
9" x 12"

mr. bryans had this tacky tropical cloth that he'd often use as a backdrop for still lifes. the year i started taking lessons from him, i used pastels and simply strove to be better at drawing, period. so, while i drew pictures from photos, he also made me draw things from life, which is what you have to do to improve. this is one of the first results of that practice. in case you want to know what the tropical cloth looked like in non-garish colors and portrayed infinity times more accurately than i've portrayed here, take a look at one of mr. bryans' paintings, "a melon summer".