The October 1st Formal Meeting (7:00 pm at Thornhill Auditorium) will feature a workshop with Marlene Hill Donnelly. Scientific illustrator at the Field Museum, Marlene also does freelance artwork for an impressive list of clients, as well as teaching and co-authoring books.

Her topic will be: Reconstructing the Ancestral Turtle–  Art and Science
Using Pastel Dust to Enhance and Correct Giclee Prints: A Mini-workshop

Please bring a giclee print of your artwork if you wish to practice this technique.

Odontochelys semitestacea is the first known ancestral turtle.  Its discovery last summer in China triggered a flurry of scientific excitement (and controversy!) and its life reconstruction was a wonderful discovery process for Marlene.  She’ll talk about model building and all the other resources used to bring an extinct creature to visual life, processes that are also invaluable in helping the nature artist create convincing paintings of living animals and landscapes.

Following the talk, Marlene will use an Ondontchelys giclee print to demonstrate how pastel dust can be used to enhance and correct fine arts prints.  This will be a hands on mini-workshop, so bring a print to practice on!