Story behind the art of Kathy Schermer-Gramm

29th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists and the Society of Illustrators

Inside the Delicata Squash

Cucurbita pepo

My search for a medium that would expand the tonal range of my graphite drawings, specifically pushing the darker values beyond graphite’s limitations, led to my studying traditional carbon dust techniques with Dino Pulerà, who is a medical and scientific illustrator. Pulerà’s animal anatomical illustrations follow in the tradition of Max Brödel, the pioneering German medical illustrator who created fantastically realistic human anatomical depictions of living internal organs. Brödel’s illustrations focus on clarity and form as would be needed to guide medical professionals. As a plant-centric artist, this is where I thought I could explore the same techniques for depicting the ‘guts’ of a botanical subject, in this case dissecting a humble squash - I have no interest in the grosser anatomy of humans or animals.

The delicata winter squash (Cucurbita pepo) represented here shows only the internal structure of a halved fruit. The composition focuses on the minute details of the inside of the fruit. The viewer can become lost amongst the mass of entangled seeds and the viscous placental strands that hold them in place. While the seeds appear as though they are ready to burst out of their womblike cavity, the surrounding flesh is a calming presence topped by the tiny top hat of a stem balancing at the apex of the fruit. 

The carbon dust method involves picking up fine 'dust’ particles that have been sanded off a carbon pencil tip and, using a small soft brush or tortillon, transferring the dust to the hot-pressed watercolor paper. This may be followed by drawing in details or sharpening edges with either graphite or carbon-based pencils. Many layers are added using a variety of techniques: applying more dust, direct pencil strokes, subtractive drawing using erasers to lift and lighten values, and switching to tortillons to soften details.  

The success of the drawing depends on how each medium is chosen. Graphite pencil goes on smoothly with less messy grit and is superior for depicting fine details and adding texture nuances. Its limitation is finding darker values beyond midtone grey that do not appear metallic. The carbon-charcoal type pencils are reserved more for making the carbon dust, which is versatile in creating a wide tonal range, and excels in the dark grey to black value range with its beautiful velvety matte darks. 

One of the challenges in this piece was learning the limitations of brushing on the dust and dealing with its tendency to adhere in areas where it is not wanted. Unlike graphite, the messy dust can easily stain the paper so keeping the background free of dust is important. Dry masking with sticky frisket type paper is sometimes used to keep areas surrounding the drawing free from dust or to retain sharp edges, but I chose to refrain from using masking in this drawing. Opting to use smaller brushes gave me the freedom to work in detailed areas without masking.

The process of layering to increase the tonal depth was more involved than I expected, and I had to make some technique adjustments. After applying the dust, any additional blending with a brush or tortillon may lift the dust, which means reapplying the dust multiple times. There is a lot of push and pull with the tools. This threw off my illusion that the process would be a time saving drawing method over traditional graphite pencil drawings. 

My first goal in venturing into this new medium was to determine if the two media would integrate seamlessly without the viewer being able to detect what is graphite and what is carbon. I found that they blended well when applied with care. The other goal was to see if I could meet Brödel’s challenge of creating a realistic image that would make sense of the chaos found within a body, or in this case, a fruit, without losing the realism. For Max Brödel, each part of the subject is clearly defined, the messy parts are articulated in a way to dispel any confusion, and the internal chaos becomes a depiction of beauty. For myself, this goal meant that the fruit is also represented in a way that invites viewers to want to feel the fruit’s surface, or to want to gut a squash, or to at least devour one themselves.

Reference:
Ranice W. Crosby, John Cody 1991. Max Brodel: The Man Who Put Art Into Medicine. Springer-Verlag, New York, Inc.

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