Natural Forms

Carly Martin

19 Sep 2025 — 4 min read

Hi there folks, hope your Friday is going well so far. Below is a smattering of things I've done in the last 14 days. Enjoy!

Question

Your question for the week is:

FMK: people, places, things

Adventuring

Last week Nat and I went hiking in the White Mountains in NH at Mt. Percival & Mt. Morgan. I would not consider myself a "hiker" per say, I can count on my fingers the number of times I've been walking up a mountain and they've all been with Nat. However, I want it to be a more leisurely activity than it currently is for me and in order to get there I have to do it more so, we hiked.

This trek was filled with wildlife. We came across some interesting looking caterpillars, a snake, some deer, and also were spitting distance from a black bear at one point. Me and the bear hashed it out, we solved his riddles three and he let us continue walking so we were all good, don't worry.

Maine.gov tells me this was a Hickory Tussock Moth caterpillar and that the hairs on their bodies are barbed and can cause skin irritation in humans

The hike I felt was slightly challenging, there were some funky features like caves you had to crawl through and ladders you had to descend. That said, Nat was scrolling Facebook marketplace looking at snow tires they could lowball a guy for, so if you're even a little bit more athletic than myself you'd probably be fine.

This route was fun because you technically get two peaks and therefore two viewpoints. I won't lie, the view from atop Morgan is pretty stunning looking out over Lake Squam and Winnipesaukee. All in all, would go hiking again. I would do this route again just for the apple cider donuts we got afterwards if for no other reason.

Life Drawing Boston

On Tuesday I went to a figure drawing class with Life Drawing Boston over in the Brickbottom Artist's Building in Somerville. Their setup rocks, its a giant warehouse space with a ton of options for choosing how you want to draw - they've got easels, they've got bleacher seating, you can lay on the floor if that's how the spirit moves you. The guy who runs it, David, is awesome and wants people to come away from sessions with personal connections above all else so the vibe of the class is very very relaxed and fun. He also provides materials and snacks and is excellent at prompting people to switch their focus, try a new way of drawing, pick up a different medium, anything to be more creative. If anyone ever wants to come with me lmk bc I had a blast. Here's their website if you're interested.

This is your NSFW warning for charcoal dots on a page, which could be construed as female nipples.

#1 were 1 minute poses, #2 & #3 were 5 minute, #4 is a 10 minute and #5 was the "long pose" at 25 minutes

I really enjoyed drawing this model. She picked very pretty, balletic poses and she brought a very cute sun hat as a prop. The love how my long pose drawing came out. I initially was nervous with this pose because there weren't a ton of like obvious forms I guess? Like obviously she's facing away from me, but the angle plus the light from where I was standing meant that most of her back was all the same value. The first thing I ended up putting down was the dip between the ribs and the hip because I liked the shape it was making and I drew outwards from there. Important to note that I have no real training in this. Visual art is an important piece of my little personal identity chart and I love to draw but I haven't taken like an instructor lead, classical drawing class since high school so if that's not how you're supposed to build out the figure - idk what you want from me.

C Ya!

recs bb

a song i'm loving:

Raspberry Beret - Prince

a movie i watched:

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of The Sith (2005) & Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) — IMO RoTS was the best of the prequels bc it leans hard into the campy nature of these films, TFA fails (and fails hard) bc it refuses to do so. It's so serious and for what. Also I want to like John Boyega so bad but oh my god the Disney-fied acting is a hard watch.

a book i'm reading: