A couple of birds, a figure and a Nature Journal

I have been in the mood to draw birds lately. So above is a small sketch of a female mallard. She is one of the birds in the photograph in my last post. She had the look of a disinterested observer to the 2 males tussling, but I am not so sure. Actually I was really attracted to the patterns on her feathers. The females may not have the brilliant color of the males but I think in their own way they are just as beautiful.

For my next subject I used a photograph I made of one of the Red Tail Hawks on exhibit at the Trailside Museum. I have a feeling she injured her other foot which is why only one is visible on her perch. I think this is a female since she was larger than the other bird in the cage. Not sure I did her justice, but not too bad either.

Below is my Nature Journal spread from a visit to Borderland State Park last week.

More dog walkers and dogs this for this entry. I should really bring a checklist of breeds when I walk at Borderland, I see so many different varieties of dogs with their owners. The smaller dog to the right was I believe a miniature collie, and the woman was walking a golden retriever. The challenge with these drawings is to get the woods to have the right feeling and look. And believe me it is a challenge.

The sketch on the bottom of the page is of the needles of an Eastern Red Cedar. Their "leaves" are finer than the Northern White Cedar, and they have what look like berries instead of miniature pine cones. The bark/trunk is also very distinctive. At some point I will start drawing tree trunks to illustrate the look of various barks. Probably not until spring when I will have leaves to help identify the trees.

Last nights figure drawing. I have mixed feelings abut this one. It is OK but I wish I had spent more time on the face and head. Ah well there is always next week.

We did have a good crowd for the session which was good and bad. The good was more people the bad is that 2 were young women who smoke. Can I say here I hate the smell of cigarette smoke and the older I get the more I hate it. UGH, I have no clue why young people start smoking now a days, how they can afford it is a complete mystery to me.

The above is a photograph from my walk at Borderland. This is the largest spillway in the park and as you can see there is plenty of water flowing over it. While we haven't had a lot of snow this winter we have been having rain so the lakes are full.

That is it for today. Next time I will share images that I am working on as the center for the border I finished a few weeks ago. In the meantime comments are always welcome.