Welcome to spring, it has been a long winter here in the Northeast, though I have to say that I know it will still be a couple of weeks before we really see the lawns showing signs of green. Esp. as most are still under inches of snow. But note that I wrote inches not feet, so we have had a lot of melting in past couple of weeks. Today is the Spring Equinox, one of two days in the year when darkness and light are evenly split. Now the daytime with it's hours of light will start becoming longer than our hours of darkness.
Above is another of my Nature Journal catch up pages. This one is from a visit to Daniel Webster on June 4, 2013. My usual tree stump, I use this artifact to document the rising/falling water in the Panne. A squirrel that was visiting the bird feeder area looking for a meal. And last a bird sitting on one of the nest boxes outside one of the Blinds in the sanctuary. Not sure at this point if the bird was a tree swallow or a sparrow, but I think a tree swallow as they like to use the nest boxes. Just 2 more pages to go and I will be caught up.
The above is an expanded/modified version of one of the pen exercises I did not too long ago. The flower and triangles are what I lifted from the original exercise adding the dragonfly and leaf to the design. This is done on new to me paper, Utrecht American Master's Printmaking, a 100% cotton 90lb250gsm. I purchased a 9 x 12 pad of this when I was last at Dick Blicks. Not sure if I like it or not. I like the weight, and the paper seems to really absorb the ink, it has a slightly textured surface and isn't bright white. It is the texture I am not sure about, and to be honest the way it absorbs the ink, I think I almost prefer that ink stay on the surface of the paper, but I want to do some more experimenting before I decide one way or the other.
Size is 6 x 8 inches (I cut a sheet in half and then trimmed one edge) inked with my various tipped technical pens.
Above is another of my Pen Exercise doodles. I started with a drawn line then filled in areas with different fills and added the stipple and 3 drops later to add more variety and texture. Done in one of my sketchbooks size is about 6 x 8 inches, and done with my various technical pens.
I don't have any new photographs today, well the above is new in that I haven't posted it before, but since last Wednesday I have been without the camera, I had to take it's primary lens in for repair. The good news is that it is ready for me to pick up. Now I just need some sun and I can take it out to play with. We had clouds this morning but the forecast is for sun this afternoon so cross your fingers for me.
The above photo was made last week in the Fens, someone was feeding the ducks and these were arriving for their share. I am still exploring using the camera on more manual settings, and am not sure I would have gotten as little wing blur with automatic settings.
That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome. Happy Spring everyone, (unless you are south of the equator, then it is Happy Fall).
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