Fall Berries

Every plant that flowers produces seeds, some plants encase the seeds in pulp and an outer cover to temp birds, insects or other animals to carry them away and eat them. Today's blog showcases photos I have made in recent weeks of various berries.

I don't usually see these berries ripe. I think the birds and chipmunks get them as soon as they are ripe, or it could be that I just wasn't paying enough attention. But the above photo made at the Governor Ames Estate in Easton, MA., Sept. 4, of a single remaining berry on a Canada Mayflower plant is an exception. Canada Mayflower is a common native plant of New England woods blooming with white flowers in the spring (usually May).

Roses start blooming in early summer (mid June) and will usually bloom through early July. The fruits of the rose flower are called Rose Hips. We have several native rose species here in MA. and to be honest I am not sure which one is represented in the above photo, made at Daniel Webster MA Audubon, Marshfield, MA. on Sept. 24, 2017. A source of food for birds they are also can be used by humans.

Another native plant of the forest floor is Wintergreen. The red berry above is the fruit of this plant that prefers acidic soils, and is the original source of the flavoring Wintergreen. Native Americans used this berry for many purposes including making a tea. I photographed these plants at Ames Nowell State Park, Abington, MA. on Sept. 29, 2017.

Here is another native plant of the forest floor. You have to be paying attention to notice this small berry growing among the low growing leaves, though the red color does attract attention. This is Partridge Berry and is unusual because the single fruit is formed from the two flowers that bloomed in early summer. I found these plants in my local city park, (Brockton, MA) though it is a common plant in this area. Photographed Sept. 28, 2017.

The above berries are of the Bittersweet Nightshade, also called Climbing Nightshade. This non-native plant can be found in waste places and often in your own yard where soil has been disturbed and weeds allowed to grow. I photographed this plant at the Golf Course at Ponkapoag Pond, Canton, MA., Oct. 3, 2017. They are pretty berries but toxic to humans so should not be eaten.

The red berries above are an excellent winter food source for birds. They are hard so birds seem to prefer them after they have softened due to time and frosts. These are the berries of the Winterberry bush.  There are several species that are called winterberry that have bright red berries, I believe this is Smooth Winterberry as I photographed it growing at the edge of Ponkapoag Pond, Canton, MA., Oct. 3, 2017. A native bush that is a good addition to a yard where the owner wants to have bird friendly plantings. The small white flowers aren't showy but they do attract native pollinators and bloom early summer.

These are the berries of the Pokeweed plant. The berries are poisonous to humans but young leaves can be eaten after appropriate processing. That said they are a food source for birds. The plants are large and bushy and can often be seen along roadsides. I photographed these at Great Blue Hill, Canton, MA, Oct. 4, 2017. Native Americans used the plant for medicinal purposes and the berries can be used as a dye.

As a reversal of how I used to do the blog, above is a drawing I recently made. It is Inktober time, that month in the year where artists are urged to create a daily ink drawing for the 31 days of the month. I don't know how well I will do this year, so far not too well, only 2 drawings finished, but I may do better. In any case I managed this one of a couple of spotted wintergreen plants with their growing seed pods. I used a dip pen and  India ink for this drawing.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome. Please note that I have provided links to appropriate pages for each named plant, though the link for the Rose Hips is to a page that discusses uses.

Happy 2016, and Some Ink Work

On one hand I can't believe I let the entire month of December go by without one blog update, on the other hand it makes total sense. Thanksgiving was late in 2015, leaving just 4 weeks till Christmas. For me Thanksgiving was a wake up call, buy presents, get them wrapped and mailed, make travel reservations, figure out what I wanted to take, pack, then travel. It didn't leave me a lot of time for art or the blog. Then I spent 2 weeks in Chicago, a great place to visit but it wasn't feasible to try and make any blog updates while I was there. Though I did draw while in Chicago, that is mostly where the images in today's post were made. Then I had to travel home, and try to settle back into my life, taking care of plants, returning books to library, laundry, groceries, bills, etc. I am thankful to say that is all mostly done. So today I am belatedly turning my attention to the blog.

The above is sort of a doodle, but not entirely, I think I have it in the back of my brain to attempt to design some fabric. The above is a first attempt. I used 3 different sized technical pens then watercolor pencils to add a bit of color. The watercolor was activated with a damp brush. I am not happy with the colors, and while I think the patterns have possibilities it doesn't quite work. So expect to see some more of this type of work. Whether it will actually become a fabric design I don't know at this point, we will just have to see.

You may or may not be aware that there is currently a revival with coloring books, these are mostly aimed at adults who don't feel they can draw but love color, and are happy to spend the time and effort coloring others drawings. I thought it might be fun to design some works that could be downloaded and used by others as templates to color. The subjects are based on photographs I have made, and I have tried to create simplified outlines that can be filled in. I have yet to decide where to upload large images for download, probably in my Esty shop, so stay tuned.

Above are three mallard ducklings. the drawing and ink work are done, image scanned and it is time for me to do some coloring with this one. My drawing was done on Stonehenge paper and I inked them with my technical pens, size is 7 x 7 inches.

The flowers in the above drawing are purple headed sneezeweed and the reference photograph was one I used in my Flowers 2016 calendar. The background leaf pattern is just me being creative and doesn't really reflect the reference. Another drawing ready to be colored. I will be using colored pencils for these though I suppose I could use watercolor pencils or even watercolor. Something to think about.

I have one more drawing that needs to be inked then I need to work on a couple more of these. They have been both a challenge and fun to do.

The above photograph I made in Chicago, a bush with red berries in front of a window that was reflecting a tree and sky. I thought it was sort of fun so am posting it here.

I took the train to Chicago, and since I arrived at South Station with some time to spare I took my camera for a walk and made some Boston Photos prior to departing, so this is a December photograph of the Fort Point Channel with a view of the sheep statue and some Boston buildings as a backdrop, looking northeast. Wool was an important trade commodity for Colonial Boston. Wool produced here in the Colonies was shipped back to England to be woven into cloth. Early Colonists were prohibited from shipping 100% wool cloth between colonies or exporting it out of its place of manufacture. Of course the prohibition of shipping between colonies couldn't really be enforced. So spinning and weaving became important home industries for early american Woman and Children.

That is it for today, I want to take a moment to wish everyone reading a Happy Healthy 2016, may some of your dreams and/or wishes come true this next year, may you and yours enjoy good health, and be creative. Per usual comments are welcome. Oh, there are a few Chicago photographs on my Facebook page if you are interested in looking, link at the bottom of the blog.

More plant drawings, and line comparisions

Going to be a fairly short posting today. Above is a graphite sketch of some leaves with yellowish berries. I fear I did a bit of vandalism as I picked this short branch to take with me as a reference for this drawing. As the bush this comes from is rather over grown I think my vandalism can be excused and won't even be noticed.

Done in my sketchbook with a B grade lead. I suppose I could have spent more time on this, but am still rather pleased with the outcome. Not sure what the bush is, if I find I have some time and the inclination I will try to find out. Right now the berries are yellowish but I am not sure that is their final color so I will be keeping an eye on the bushes to see.

A small stem of small white asters. I made this sketch with one of my technical pens directly, no pencil drawing first. The plant this comes from is just being opportunistic growing in a waste area, wild flowers in the city.

Both of these drawings were done in one of my sketchbooks and are more or less studies, these studies are a way for me to keep my hand in while I work on other projects.

A photo of my work in progress of the leaves I started a couple of weeks ago. I have been spending my time since that last update on this working on the stipple background. It probably still needs more work in areas but I was beginning to get impatient with it so decided to start adding color. I am using colored pencils as the paper I am using (Bristol Board, velum) isn't at all tolerant of water.

Each leaf size will be a different color, the largest is yellow, the middle sized leaf is blue and the smallest leaves will be violet/purple.

You are probably wondering what the heck the above image is. It is me drawing lines using the various pens/nibs that I use in my drawings. There is a discussion over in the WetCanvas Pen and Ink forum about how an artist got his fine lines. The way many pen and ink artists work when the work is intended for publication is to work large, then when the image is reduced the line work appears finer than it really is. Another way is to actually use a pen/nib that creates a fine line.

I prefer to work with a fine pen line myself so decided to compare my various tips/pens to see which were the finest. The winner is the Rapidograph technical pens, exp. the 3X0 and the 4X0 tips. I used the 3X0 for the stippling in the leaf work above. It takes a while to achieve a mid-tone with that size tip, but I really like the look so I use it.

Next thinnest would be the Micron 005 pen. But I have found that the last few Microns I purchased just didn't seem to hold up as well as they used to, so I currently prefer my technical pens.

Last are my dip pen tips, I really need to get some new nibs as I am fairly sure there are some on the market that will make a finer line. However, I am going to have to order them on-line as none of the Brick and mortar stores I visit carry what I am looking for.

I believe this pretty white flowering vine is Sweet Autumn Clematis. I have no clue how this vine came to be growing where it is, in some trees next to a stream prior to it going under a roadway, esp. as the area is not currently a tended garden. From the abundance of white flowers it seems to be doing quite well and is happy in its semi wild location. Since this is not a native species I expect that at one time there was a garden in this area and the vine was planted then, or maybe not, perhaps it is just a volunteer, or maybe there is a secrete gardener who planted it in the dead of night, can you tell I am finding it fun to speculate?

Anyway that is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.

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Two Takes on one Photo

Above is my latest drawing done with colored pencils. I use Derwents, Studio, Artists and Signature. I don't use the Colorsoft as I find them too soft for my tastes. I really prefer the Studio pencils, but there are more colors in the Artists line, and the Signature colors are more fade proof so I end up using a bit of all three when I draw.

For a few years now I have been making photographs partially with the intent of using them as reference sources for my drawings. Last fall I made the top photo in the grouping below at the North River Audubon Sanctuary in Marshfield, MA. I really liked this photo and decided to use it for an experiment.

The first step was to draw the design the size I wanted to make the finished work. The lower image on the left above is the sketchbook drawing done to fit within a 4 inch square. A good size for the Hot Press Watercolor paper I have already cut into pieces. The next step was to trace the design on tracing paper, the image to the right above is my tracing paper pattern. I then used the tracing paper to transfer the design to two different pieces of watercolor paper. I intended to use colored pencils to create one of the drawings and pen and ink with a watercolor wash for the second.

The top image is the finished colored pencil drawing. Obviously I used the photograph as a reference while drawing the berries and background. I didn't put the background details into my original drawing because I felt it would be too confusing and I didn't want any unnecessary pencil lines. I am rather pleased with how it came out, not exactly the photograph but I think it works.

Below is the finished pen and ink watercolor version. Note that when I was transferring the image I created a mirror image of the original design. I decided that it might be fun to do the finish drawing that way so left the error instead of erasing and starting over.

A different look, as the background was done only with watercolor while the leaves and berries in the foreground of the photograph have hard edges defined by the ink. I think I prefer the colored pencil drawing, but would love to hear others opinions. Also the red of the berries isn't quite the right color, I might have been able to do better if I had don't some pretesting of my reds, I will have to remember that for my next painting.

The photo below requires some explaining.

The photograph was made at the Blue Hills Wildlife center where they have on display animals that live in and around the  Blue Hills. All of the animals have been injured in some manner that would be a death sentence for them if they were released. I don't know what the injury was to the Great Horned Owl that lives in the above cage. I think he is a bit on the small size for one thing but whatever it is he is inside the cage and can't get out. Do you see that bit of orange in the upper right, that is a Baltimore Oriole. When I was at the center yesterday afternoon a pair of orioles was flying in and out of the owls cage harassing him. If they weren't flying at him they were perched on the cage or nearby tree branches making what I assume would be alarm calls at him. I must admit to feeling sorry for the owl, after all there is no way he could really get away from them. I have to assume that they have a nest somewhere in the area and are becoming concerned for the safety of their young so want to drive him away.  I can only hope that eventually they gave up the cause and left him alone. Poor guy usually spends his days in his enclosure, avoiding the light and direct view, but I am sure with Orioles dive bombing him it was better to be out in the open where he could somewhat escape their attentions.

Thats it for today, per usual comments or questions are welcome.