We kick off the new year with Greg Lewallen, an art professor at Baylor University. Since he was a little boy, Greg Lewallen has collected objects of natural history, from insects and birds to reptiles and animal skulls. These are often the subjects of his artwork. His personal fascination with the natural world has led him on collecting expeditions to exotic and remote regions of Africa and tropical America and provided him with a lifetime’s worth of material to draw and paint.

Art Professor Greg Lewallen discusses his collection of bugs and its influence on his artwork.

This time-lapse video shows the making of "Speyeria cybele", a soft pastel drawing of a butterfly from my collection. If you watch closely (and quickly!) you can see how I apply the pastel pencil, then rub it into the surface of the paper with a paper stump. This drawing has several layers to it, working from darker tones to lighter details at the end. I hope you enjoy these process videos. One of these days, I will remember to start recording BEFORE I actually start drawing!

this is a quick time-lapse of how I add color to my 8x10" drawings that are first rendered in pen and ink. Once the textures and values are fully rendered in pen and ink (Pigma Micron Technical pen .005 size), I then add color with pastel pencils, burnish the pastels into the surface of the paper (which pretty much obliterates the ink drawing) and finally come back with a kneaded rubber eraser to remove excess pastel and re-expose the ink drawing underneath.

Maggie Malone was a Video Journalism major that had taken my art class when she was a freshman at Baylor. She contacted me a couple of years later and asked if she could interview me about following my passion. This video is the result of her senior project. I think she did a great job!

For this weeks {254} I am joined by Rebekah Hagman, owner of Waco’s very own art gallery. We are also joined by Greg Lewallen, one of her featured...