Green Dragonflies in a mythical world

 I was just playing around with my green colored pencils the other night and the above drawing is the result. Nothing wonderful, but I sort of like the dragonfly which is based on one of the photographs I made this summer. The weird plant is totally my imagination. I used only various green pencils with the addition of white and some Indigo blue.

Below is my Nature Journal page from my visit to Daniel Webster Sanctuary yesterday:

I found plenty to write about yesterday but coming up with what I wanted to draw was a bit more tricky. I really need a better lens for the camera.

There was a lot of wild life to be seen yesterday. At the birdfeeders by the entrance I saw squirrels, a chipmunk, cardinals (male and female), titmice, chickadees, redwing blackbirds, grackles (I think), house finch, a junco, blue Jays, turtle doves, downy woodpeckers and a Hairy (which is larger then the downy), and I am sure there were a few sparrows in the mix. Now that the weather is turning colder the feeders are becoming more active.

Out in the woods I also heard then saw a woodpecker, but can't tell you if it was a downy or a Hairy, it can be tricky to tell size with field glasses and I had to use them to see the bird. At the pond there were a lot of Canada Geese when I arrived, by the time I left to continue my walk they had all flown off to feed in the fields, leaving only a few mallard ducks. I did see a Hawk fly over the pond, and a couple of chickadees. On my trip round to the northern blind I saw a doe feeding in the same field with the geese. From the northern blind I noticed lots of turtles sunning themselves on logs, and a gray duck feeding out on the pond. I believe this was an American Coot. It was smaller than the mallards and would actually dive under water, instead of just tipping over to feed.

Drawings are of the tree stump in the pond, note the water level is lower than last weeks, but I expected that we haven't had any rain for over a week. Not a bad thing, even with our cooler weather things will get a chance to dry out. Second drawing is of a crow that was sitting in a tree. I was able to approach the tree closely enough to get a photo I could use as a reference. Not always something I can do with the wild life at Daniel Webster.

Below is my figure drawing from last night.

I have drawn this model before. She is lovely and slender, but she gets very restless with her hands, esp. her right hand, which is why the right arm/hand has an unfinished look. It is unfinished, she kept shifting her pose with that hand, and I wasn't in the mood to erase and redraw the entire arm continually. End result is that I am not totally pleased with this drawing. Ah well, one week OK/good and the next week thumbs down seems to be my latest pattern. Lets see what happens next week.

Below are a couple of photographs from yesterday at Daniel Webster.

Not the best photo, but considering how late in the year it is I was totally surprised to be able to make this one at all. I saw at least 2 of these yellow butterflies yesterday, this one was feeding on a dandelion, which is why I had trouble photographing it.

Last image is of Canada Geese taking off from the pond. This was just about the last group to fly off, leaving only the ducks and turtles in possession. It became very quiet when they left, geese can be very noisy birds.

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

Nov. 13, more ATC's

I had these done last week, but was saving them for a post when I didn't really have anything else. No photographs because the weather was pretty lousy until yesterday, not to mention that the leaves have mostly gone from the trees. Not to say that I couldn't find something else to photograph I am sure I could, and probably will, so be warned.

Anyway all I have for you today are these three ATC's. The first two aren't much, I was playing around with my technical pen creating shapes and textures, then I added color using colored pencils. 

Of the two I prefer the purple/red one above. I like the colors and I also like the curved lines against the linear background grid. I may play with that concept a bit more at a later point. The concept behind this is somewhat based on a Color and Design I project I did a couple of years ago. Then we were working very large with a straight grid but the idea was to fill each section of the grid with different textures. We were using various media, markers, pencil, pen, brush and only one other color, but the concept is sort of the same.

This third ATC goes back to pictorial, showing a crow about to land on, well a branch in my image, it was something else in the photo I used as reference.

I came across this image when I was searching for reference materials to use for my FFFC October Challenge.  I really liked the drama of this crow coming in for a landing, and couldn't resist using it on one of my cards.

That is it for today. I need to get back to work on my challenge quilt (I am making slow progress) and on a new pen and ink work which I just started inking last night. Per usual comments are welcome. If anyone is interested in trading a card just let me know.