#plants

> food,

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I can hunt, trap, fish, gather some edible plants / berries or anything that I may find. I've spent plenty of time outdoors and I'd know what to avoid. For personal reasons, animals would be my last resort.

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> water,

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Any body of water would suffice. I carry a portable filtration system is my truck, a basic survival kit, tools and some other odds and ends. Distilling water is relatively easy too. If no body of water is accessible, trees would be my option for water and syrup (maple is about 100 calories per ounce). Simply tap with a small tube (metal, pvc, etc.) and drain in a container. This takes time but I wouldn't have anything else to do and I could tap several while I'm waiting for help.

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> a cell phone,

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Smoke signals / flares / fire.

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> a map, or a compass?

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If I can see Polaris, the sunrise and sunset, etc., I can make a good determination on which direction I'm headed. Wild animals would present the greatest threat but I would be prepared for them too.

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Hello there! No worries at all, first off, I’d practice with what you can access already - ie, doing still life sketches - it could be things in your room or a fruit bowl etc, just to play around with lighting, composition and such. I’d check out YouTube too - I’m sure there are artists on there who do tutorials or can give practical advice to those starting from scratch, on how to draw. To be honest, a lot of it is really the art of seeing and using observation - such as, “How is this item lit? “Where are the shadows falling?”“What angle is the light source coming from?”
All of those dictate the strength of how hard or lightly you sketch an area.

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If you wanted, you could also get someone to pose for you, if you wanted to try out life drawing - it could simply just be observing someone sitting and doing there own thing or drawing a pet, as opposed to a full on model shoot, aha. Learning to see and draw things that are in person help a lot, for honing your initial skills. It could just be drawing some plants you may have, for example.

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In terms of materials, you can’t go wrong with basics - even if it’s just computer paper and a basic set of pencils, but I recommend any pencils within the HB - 6B range. It basically means that they range in boldness and pigmentation, so you can experiment with drawing deeper shadows, tones and values, etc. Anything that’s H to 4H I don’t recommend, as the lines from the lead are incredibly harsh (hence the H meaning Hard), and it’s very difficult to erase.

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There’s probably many art books you can refer to too, on the basics of learning how to draw. From my own experience though, I used to draw all the time as a child, and over time, your skills and observation naturally improve and flourish. All I can say is don’t worry about mistakes - they’re key to learning how to improve next, and it’s a perfectly normal part of the process, and doesn’t mean you’re not cut out to be an artist or to just simply draw for pleasure.

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I hope that helps a little, but feel free to ask me anything any time! :)

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*She's able to get them out of there, but not to somewhere else on Earth, rather to her home in Aesotheni, it's clear the violet crystal that it's composed of is a singular crystal, it wasn't crafted into a home as much as it was grown into one, the 5 floored pagoda like building looks out over a thick jungle that glows with bioluminescent plants and fruits, the calls of unearthly animals can be heard but none sound threatening, if anything the sounds are peaceful. She collapses backwards onto her bed on the top floor, self healing is always hit or miss with her, she's still damaged, horrifically so, with a mass of internal injuries, here in her world, her home, her room, they can't reach her, she can heal on her own time. She wrenches an eye open to look at the one-eyed Yakuza she managed to bring along with her*
"Let's not do that again."

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