Watercolor and more pen and ink

Another plein air painting, this time just of a single flower, the flower is a Canadian May flower and I was visiting Borderland State Park in Easton when I was painting. I had a wonderful view of one of the ponds and actually took a break from painting to watch a Great Blue Heron do some fishing. They are such beautiful birds. Anyway looking at this now I realize that I don't have the values right, well the scan is a bit off so that is part of it, but I have the background and the leaves almost the same value, not a good thing even if true to life. Bother, well I just have to keep working at it.

I did do a bit of pencil sketching prior to painting, then I added just a few pen lines to this piece.

I was doodling the other day and these two, hmm, illustrations I guess I will call them for want of a better word came out of the pen. No real clue why, just felt like it. I drew the one on the left first and added the caption, then I thought about the 2nd one so just drew the "cat" with a paw under, fishing for something, added the caption, and finally the mouse head peaking around the corner.

Peaking around corners seems to be the theme of these two drawings, and they have a certain amount of whimsy to them. Guess I had to get in my whimsy allotment for the month of May.

Another of my pen exercises, using all of my Technical pen tips, told you I was going to revisit the stars in my last exercise, still not sure I am done with these.

A Pearl Crescent Butterfly that I photographed yesterday at Attleboro Springs in Attleboro, MA. I believe this is a male who was seeking a mate. He was just perched on that branch gently waving his wings up and down, spreading pheromones I would guess. Hope a lady friend eventually showed up to reward his efforts, and bravery, after all he was just sitting out in the open, not really a good idea for a butterfly that might be someones snack. Crescents are a small to mid sized butterfly, larger than the Azures and Elfins I have been photographing, but smaller than Painted Ladies or Monarchs, and much smaller than Swallowtails.

This is a rather nice photo, when they aren't looking for mates they tend to flit and flutter wings making it hard to get a spread wing photograph.

Photo above was made at Oak Knoll MA Audubon site that is just down the road from Attleboro Springs. This isn't the main house but a storage shed adjunct to the main structure. I was photographing the white dogwood to the left and realized that I really like this photo with the contrasting greens/blue sky/white flowers/building. It says spring to me, even though the dogwood is a bit past its prime it is still pretty.  Unlike my painting of the mayflower this photo has a good range of values, darks, lights and midtones.

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