EDM198, More crows and flowers

I have been busy working on the two drawing below, but I did find time to make another Everyday Matters sketch. This one was for #198: Draw some Noodles. I chose to be a bit liberal in what I considered noodles, and really went with dried pasta. I could have drawn spaghetti noodles since that is what I had for dinner, but I was hungry and didn't want to let my dinner get cold while I drew so those got eaten and I used dried pasta shapes for my drawing.

Shapes are rotini, shells and elbows. I also have egg noodles in the cabinet, but forgot about them when I was pulling samples to draw. The hardest was the rotini, sort of like a screw and I did use some guide lines which I then erased to help with that one. The shells were fun, and a bit more complex than I expected. The elbows were probably the simplest shape, and in the end the lest fun to draw.

Above is my latest stipple piece finished. Well I think it is finished, but as I keep finding border areas that I think aren't quilt dark enough I may be adding a bit more dots there. I think I will leave the center alone. I was originally going to use line work for the center, but then decided it wouldn't be in keeping with the rest of the piece so ended up stippling the tree and birds.

Don't look too closely at the image, I assembled it in Photoshop after scanning it in 2 sections, the finished drawing is a bit too large to fit on my scanner as one scan. I will photograph it when we have better weather, today is a bit too cloudy to get a good photo of this. Size is 11 x 10 inches on Stonehenge paper, stipple done with a 3X technical pen.  

One last drawing for today, a watercolor of some pink dogwood flowers. From a photograph I made a couple of years ago of a neighbors tree. I simplified the photo a bit and left out the real background . This is the first larger sized watercolor I have done for a while, and the first where I didn't use any zentangle type fills. Done on cold press water color paper size is 7.0 inches by 5.0 inches. I did use pen to outline the stems, branches and petals prior to painting.

Above is the a the section of my photograph that I used for reference. Pretty aren't they, course we still have a couple of months before they will be blooming again here.

That is it for today, per usual comments are always welcome.

Canada Geese Finished

First image today is the finished version of my Three Geese. I decided I just needed to get this done so spent most of Sunday late afternoon/evening working on the fore and middle ground of this piece. At this point I consider it done and have sprayed it with fixative. I am pleased with how it came out, and know that even 2 years ago I probably wouldn't have managed it so well. All these weeks/months of live model drawing sessions are paying off. Well at least I think so anyway. Aren't they a hansom trio of geese? Done on Stonehenge paper with graphite pencils, 2B, 2H, and H, size is approx 9.0 x 7.0 inches

For those who don't follow my blog the drawing is based on a photograph I made last December at Daniel Webster Audubon Sanctuary in Marshfield, MA. I had purchased a new lens for my camera and wanted to try it out. I got lucky with this photograph and fell in love with it. Now I have it as a drawing.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in MA, at least weather wise, sunny and warm, with temps in the upper 60's and even hitting 70 in some areas. Before my outing to my drawing session last night I made a visit to Daniel Webster, my first in a couple of weeks.

On the surface not much has changed in the 2 weeks since my last visit, trees are still bare and the fields are still winter brown. But the birds are singing their hearts out and make quite a bit of noise as they stake out territory for the coming breeding season. And at the pond it looks like all of the turtles are back out of hibernation. The tree stump had 13 turtles on it. My top sketch in the Journal is a quick version of the 13 all trying for their spot in the sun.

The bottom sketch shows a bird investigating one of the many bird houses at Daniel Webster. This house is in the man made pond area. I think the visitor was a song sparrow, but between the shade of the bird house roof and the sun shinning off feathers I am not entirely sure, it was a little brown bird that much I can say for sure.

My other high point yesterday was seeing a blue bird feeding in the fields near the Fox Hill observation point. I tried making photos, but the bird was just a bit too far for me to make any good ones. It would perch on an electrical wire observing the fields, then it would swoop down into the grasses for a bit then fly back up to either a wire or a tree branch of the only tree out there and repeat the process. I was thrilled, I have caught glimpses of blue birds before, but never to truly recognize one, the way I could yesterday.

Above is last nights figure drawing. Not sure how I feel about this one. I was trying to work the figure a bit larger than I did last week, and as a result am not sure if I have it all correct. Also I feel I could have done a better job on her face, but she kept shifting her head slightly, and the light was such that even a small shift changed the shadows. Still not too bad, at least she looks human.

Above is the photo I used as reference for my sketch of the 13 turtles. Not sure if the resolution will let you count them, but take my word for it there are 13 of these guys all packed onto this one stump.

That is it for today. Per usual comments are always welcome.

EDM, Signs of Spring and finished sparrows.

Above is another of my fairly quick Everyday Matters sketches. This one was done for number 44: Draw an Animal, a pet, a zoo animal, or a stuffed one. I chose to draw another of my Beanie Babies. I really don't have that many of them, just 5, and this is the only one that isn't some kind of cat. This is Rainbow a chameleon, though mine is mostly blue with a bit of green.

I drew this little guy the other day when I didn't think I would have anything else finished for the blog, then I decided it was about time I finished my sparrows, so put off the blog update until today and finished them last night.

Above is the finished pen and ink Sparrows drawing, they are gathering food on stones placed in the ground. The sparrows are taken from photos I made last summer, but the drawing is a combination of two photographs not one. Drawing size is about 8.0 x 6.0 inches on smooth Bristol board with crow quill pen and India ink. I actually finished the drawing last night, but I had some left over pencil lines that needed erasing so needed to wait several hours before I did that. After all the work I put into this I didn't want to smear ink erasing pencil, been there, done that, and I wasn't happy.

It had been quite a while since I had done a drawing with crow quill. I use ink all the time, but mostly Micron or Technical pens and it isn't the same. The nib of the crow quilt is more flexible, giving a more varied line, though I used a very fine nib for this, also I have to keep dipping the pen in the ink which takes getting used to.

I am fairly pleased with how this came out. I won't be adding color to this, I feel it would only distract from the ink work.

I actually managed an outing this week to one of the State Parks. We had beautiful weather on Wed., sunny, temp in the upper 50's or low 60's so I took advantage and went to visit Borderland State Park in Easton, MA. I was rewarded by being able to see and photograph some snowdrops that had sprung up in the old garden area by the House. These are the first real flowers I have seen so far this year, even with all warmish weather we have had.

The image on the top of the page is one of the snowdrops. The honey bees were out in force, something that surprised me, since there can't be a lot of flowers blooming at this point. The hive they are from must be in the neighborhood, though I don't think there is one on the Park grounds, unless they are wild.

The bottom image is of a small wooden bridge that crosses the pond outlet stream. We had some rain last week so the ponds are all high and the stream is flowing well. My reference photograph had a couple of people on the bridge, but when I came to do the drawing I decided to leave them out. Too much detail for so small a drawing.

Above is one of my photographs of the snowdrops, you can see a bee on one of the flowers toward the top. Usually honey bees don't pay much attention to me when I am photographing even if I get up close, these guys didn't seem very happy with me on Wed. so I didn't make as many photos as I wanted to. I didn't want to push my luck with them, and end up stung. Competition for the nectar seemed to be pretty stiff among them, so I have to wonder if they were from different hives.

That is it for today, I should be back on track posting my next update next Tuesday. In the meantime comments are always welcome.

A bird, flowers and a figure

Above is another Artist Trading Card. This time the flower is a pink phlox, at least I think that is what it is. I can't recall where I made the photograph I used as reference, but the wild flower Dames Rocket, which this resembles has only 4 petals not 5. My critical self tells me that I should have made the flower larger. Maybe I will redraw this one and do exactly that, otherwise I think it is fairly successful, I really do like the combination of green and pink.

The hen in the above drawing is from a photograph I made last summer down on the Cape. For some reason she looks mean, though I don't recall that the actual bird displayed any mean behavior, in other words she didn't chase me.

This has been drawn in one of my sketchbooks and was done mainly for practice. I have a larger drawing of chickens that has been just sitting for way too long, I should really get back to it.

Above is last nights figure drawing. Other than I was working a bit small last night I am rather pleased with it. At least I am much happier with this drawing than I was with last weeks. I need to remember to try and work larger with my drawings, that way I don't have to put in quite so much of the background.

The one area I am not pleased with is the left arm/hand which was draped over the couch. I had two problems, she kept slightly changing the hand/arm position and I just couldn't seem to draw a natural looking hand last nigh. Since I did fine with the right hand I have no clue why the left was giving me so many problems. Another something to work on next week.

The above photo was made in Brockton's Fields Park, in March 2009, and slightly later in the month. Again I haven't made it out to one of the sanctuaries or State Parks to walk and photograph since my last update. Yesterday was cold, though sunny and I decided I just didn't want to walk in the cold and wind. Despite the past couple of days it has been so warm that I expect to see trees in about this stage of Spring growth when I next venture out which should be tomorrow or Thursday.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.

Welcome March

Well it is March, and we are having typical weather for March in this part of the world, chilly cold winds with some snow, sleet, and rain to welcome in the Month. I know Spring is coming but today it doesn't really feel like it. Still my thoughts when I have been drawing have been of Spring and warmer weather.

The drawing above utilizes a couple of my photographs from last spring to give you this version of violets, both white and the traditional blue. Actually violets like the ones above wouldn't be found together, the little white ones prefer poorer soil conditions and sun, while the blue are happier in shade and richer loamy soil. This is more or less a bookmark (2 x 6 inches) done on cold press watercolor paper, some ink outlines and then watercolor.

Above is another ATC done this time with just stipple in black and white. I have thought about adding some color but don't think I will at this point. The image of a sparrow sitting on a fence is from a photo I also made last summer at the Trailside Museum in the Blue Hills Reservation, Milton, MA.

The other evening I was glancing at the cover of a National Geographic that has a pair of twins on it and though why not try to draw a portrait of one of the two, so I did the above drawing. I can see some areas I might want to check but on the whole I am satisfied with how it came out.

I haven't been happy with the faces I have been drawing of the models on Monday night so was feeling some portrait practice would be a good thing. There may be more in my future, the problem is finding good images to use as a reference. Done in one of my sketchbooks with just graphite.

The above photograph I made this morning is of starlings sitting in a next door tree. As you can see the sky is totally grey and gloomy. The next few days have forecasts of more clouds and rain, not sure when we will see sun again, so no Nature Journal pages appear to be in my immediate future. Maybe not a bad thing, I have been feeling a bit, hmm, bored isn't the correct word, maybe stale is more accurate, so a short break is probably good.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome. Maybe I will go and work on a couple more EDM sketches for next week.

ATC, Figure and WIP Geese

Above is my latest Artist Trading Card. These are some sort of ornamental cherry blossoms from a photograph I made last spring. I took some liberties with this so the flowers are more a gesture than an accurate reproduction of  the real blossoms. Oddly enough I almost like the scan of this card better than I do the original.. Not sure I have the color of the blossoms quite right, that pink/blue/red is tricky to recreate with pigments.

The card has ink outlines for the flower blossoms and was then painted with watercolor, on cold press watercolor paper. I suppose I should stop working so small and see if I can make a watercolor that works on a larger sheet of paper. But I still feel that I am the rankest beginner with watercolor so am hesitant to work much larger. The ATC's are good practice for me.

Above is an update on my Geese drawing. It still isn't finished, but I have made a fair amount of progress. Background has been darkened, bodies of the geese have been darkened and I have done some work on the foreground though there is still a fair amount of work needing to be done. So far so good, at least with pencil I can correct most errors as I go along.

Above is last nights figure drawing. I think I should have spent a bit more time making Photoshop adjustments with this photo. The blue cast is from sunlight, or rather shadow, since the photo was made outside and the paper was in shadow when I made the photo.  The paper is more cream than blue or even white, and I know I can make a better correction in Photoshop if I take the time.

Hmm, I was working this morning on making some lines lighter and I may have made one the lines around her upper leg a bit too light. Ah well as I usually say there is always next week.

My photograph for today I made yesterday at Ames Nowell State Park, two Canada Geese, one stretching its wings. There is no Journal Spread today. I didn't make it over to Daniel Webster for the first time in months if you don't count my misses while I was in Chicago. I did get a short walk at Ames Nowell (it is closer to me) but didn't bother writing a Journal entry. These weeks of late winter don't have much going on for me to document. There is always something at Daniel Webster for me to write about, birds at the feeders, and the amount of water in the woods and pond, but with parks I visit less often it is harder for me to find something to write about.

March is almost here and with it should be some of the earliest signs of spring. In the meantime that is it for today, comments are always appreciated.

EDM 93 & 195 and another ATC

Another Friday and I have some more Everyday Matters drawings to share. Above is #93 - draw an egg carton. Mine was Styrofoam and I am not thrilled with the final image. I know I could have done better. Egg cartons are really complex objects and I didn't spend the amount of time on it that I probably should have. Still it does look like an egg carton so I guess it is OK.

Above is #195 - draw a fork, my silverware is quite simple, I have always prefer it that way so above is my very simple fork which has more edges and planes then I think I realized before I started drawing it, which of course is the point of the exercise.

Above is another ATC, this one is of Bindweed, pretty flowers related to Morning Glory's, or perhaps I should say it the other way around. The bindweed is the wild plant and a bane of gardeners because its runners will spread underground and the plant above ground will choke out other preferred plants. This one I found growing in a wild area with no one to particularly care if it was there or not.

The background on this card is a heavy stipple leaving some lighter areas to suggest the leaves that were surrounding the flowers. Color is colored pencil, my card stock here is Bristol Board which doesn't take water well.

This next image is a work in progress. I finished the ink work on the sparrow on the right last night and though I would show my progress. I started this drawing before Christmas but have been nervous about doing the inking so have left it sitting while I went on to work on other projects. But I want to finish the center of my border piece so decided to use the sparrows as practice.

I am using old fashioned crow quill pen and India ink for this work. It is a very fine nib so I can put in lots of fine lines. So far it is turning out better than I thought it would a day or so ago.

 Finally a photo made Monday at Daniel Webster:

I don't have any Nature Journal pages to share today. While the weather hasn't been that bad I just wasn't able to motivate myself out to another park this week. I know I am getting tired of the bare winter landscape, and finding something to draw for these pages has gotten to be an effort.

Still there is a certain beauty to the winter landscape even without snow. Above is a photo of a red maple grove at Daniel Webster with the raised walkway in frame. You can just glimpse one of the bridges that cross the river which makes an ox bow around these woods. In the summer this area is like being in a cathedral with green glass windows, in the winter without the leaves the light is more direct.

That is it for today, hope everyone has a great weekend. Per usual comments are always welcome.