Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Colored Pencil

Above is the finished version of my latest colored pencil drawing in my 6 x 6 inch series, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. The drawing is from a reference photo I made several years ago. The background was abstracted and modified from the original reference. Actually I think that if I had done this drawing more recently it would have been a bit more simplified but it had already been inked when I started adding color recently.

Swallowtails are the oldest species of butterfly, they also tend to be the largest and the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is often the largest in the group. So this was a large butterfly.

I have only one in-process image for this work. Above is a scan where all of the first layer of color was applied and I had started adding the final layers of the background green. I use Faber Castel Polychromos for the top layers while the base layer are done with Derwent wax pencils. The base layer is not much more than a light layer of a light color. Keeping it light allows me more latitude with the top layers.

The Butterfly is the last of the drawings I had inked a couple of years ago when I got distracted and put the project aside and focused on photographs. I am now working on a couple of different subjects/images for the next drawings in the series.

These next three drawings are something a bit different for me. for some reason I was never interested in doing colored pencil portraits. But earlier this June I purchased a set of Prismacolor Premiere pencils, they are a creamy wax based pencil and I thought why not test drive them with some portraits. So far I have finished 3 drawings. All reference images are from the Wetcanvas photo library. As a member of the site I am free to use them.

There are some inaccuracies in the drawings, it has been over a year since I did a lot of serious drawing so my skills are rusty, but I will say that I am relatively pleased with the results. For the most part everyone at least looks human.

I am starting all of these drawings with a light pencil sketch to locate eyes, shape of head, end of nose and mouth. Next I use a kneaded eraser to remove/lighten the pencil lines until they are barely visible.  Once the graphite lines are mostly gone I start with the colored pencils working first with light colors and then adding shading and darker tones. 

I started with the woman above. The light brown skin was fun to do.

The boy above was my second portrait attempt. Not sure how I like this one. His darker skin tones were a challenge and I am not sure I used the right colors for it. I used pinks and reds though I wonder if some orange and violets wouldn't have been better. Ah well will have to work on that. Also teeth can be very tricky, The ear leaves a lot to be desired but I was getting tired of working on this so left it generalized rather than detailed.

I do have to say t hat the hair was fun, I used, I think, at least 3 different colored pencils on it, starting with a light warm grey, adding some dark brown and also black.

This little boy is the last one I have finished, and I have to say this is the one that I am happiest with. I think I got the skin tones mostly right, and the shape of the head and features. I probably should have shaded the right side of his face a bit more, but I didn't want to push it too dark, which is an easy mistake to make with any drawing (the mistake is staying too light) After doing the darker skinned boy it was a challenge to find the right colors for this very light skinned child. But at least he looks like a child, so easy to get children's faces wrong.

Now the challenge is going to be finding more subjects. I am beginning to understand why colored pencil artists like to do portraits, often on commission. It can be a challenge to find copyright free images to draw. I don't usually photograph people so I don't have many personal reference photos to use.

All of these portraits were done in my small Strathmore sketchbook 5.5 x 8.5 inches. Not the best paper for colored pencil work but not the worst either.

Now for a couple of photographs.

Gladiolas, not the most common garden flower now a days, the stalks are a bit fragile, but they do have beautiful flowers. Photographed in a neighborhood garden, I saw only the one plant in bloom, but aren't they beautiful flowers.

I am not seeing a lot of butterflies this year, well lots of cabbage whites, but not being able to drive limits my viewing opportunities. I believe the above is a European Skipper, not native but I am happy to photograph any butterfly this year. Not sure what the flower it is feeding on is, I think some kind of escaped garden flower.

That is it for today. I need to go work on my drawings for my series. In the meantime comments are welcome.

Grey Squirrel in Colored Pencil

The grey squirrel is done. Yeah, it took what seemed like forever to finish. Of course it didn't take that long, but I think this squirrel is the drawing I have spent the most time on in this series. The ducklings also took a long time, but the issue with them was the feathers and then the rocks. Again this one was started years ago and then put aside. I got a bit nervous about my abilities to render it so ended up putting it away while I worked on others. Finally I pushed myself to just get back to it and get it done.

It is the same size as the others, 6 x 6 inches on Stonehenge paper. I think the tree trunk took the most time to finish and I admit that it gave me the most anxiety. I worried that it wouldn't look like a tree trunk when done. Now that it is done I am relatively pleased with how this came out.

Again not photo realistic, but then I wasn't aiming for that. I did simplify the background behind the squirrel, in the photo there were more tree branches. I didn't want to draw attention away from the squirrel so left them out. 

It was a cold cloudless February day when I made this photo in Boston, MA. There was a couple of feet of snow on the ground so some of the light is reflected. The squirrel was looking for a handout, which I wasn't able to give as I had no food with me but it was a fairly close encounter.

The Wood Lily above is one of my next projects. For this one I had an almost finished drawing that needed to be transferred to the correct paper, and outlined in ink. I have all of the first layers of color applied. In fact the background is almost done. Again I used a red wax based pencil (Derwent) covered with a green wax based pencil and then a final layer of a Polychromos dark green. There are some areas that need a touch up and a bit more work but the background is mostly finished.

Wood Lilies are a native New England wildflower, found in open meadows, it is a lovely reddish  colored flower. Each plant usually has a single bloom. I photographed this one in the Power Line cut at Ames Nowell State Park in a nearby town.

I have just about run out of prepped drawings for the next in the series. I want to do at least 13/14 drawings so I can put a calendar together.

I love birds, though I admit to being a bit leery about using one of them for these drawings, color patterns on feathers can be very complex. Flowers are usually so much easier.  Still I want a variety of subjects so I expect that I will use the above bird as one of my drawings.

The bird is a Cat Bird. They are mostly grey so I won't have much of an issue with color patterns, except for the black cap that is. It is still just in the pencil stage, I need to check it for correctness but I think it is about good to go.

I am also trying to get back to some sketching with pen (no pencil) I have been away from it for so long that I am fairly sure my efforts are going to be pretty bad. But they won't get better unless I bite the bullet and just do it. The flowers above are Spiderwort an early June garden flower that has escaped to the woods. Drawn in a sketchbook with just pen. Not terrible, but not very good either. I will keep at it.

Early June is also the time when the peonies are in bloom. These two photos were made in my local neighborhood and show the varieties of peony's that can now be found in the garden. When I was young we had Peony's in our yard, all white ones that had a large multi petal bloom. I remember that at the time there was also a deep red color, but I don't recall pink of the above flowers or the brighter red in the flower below.

I love the smell of Peonies, but I don't love the ants that love the sweet sap the plant produces and seem to accompany all flowers. A problem if you wanted to bring some of the flowers inside.

Hope you enjoy these two photos. That is it for today. I need to motivate myself and get another of the colored pencil drawings finished. Per usual comments are welcome. .

Birds - Tree Swallows

I wasn't familiar with Tree Swallows until I started visiting Daniel Webster a MA Audubon sanctuary in Marshfield, MA.  Barn Swallows I knew, with their orange fronts and blue black backs they were a familiar sight as they had a colony at the Boat House on Greenwich Point.  But the hansom blue, black and white tree swallows I don't recall seeing prior to Daniel Webster. There they are a constant during spring and summer, flying over the fields and Panne catching insects on the wing. By fall they are gone heading off to their wintering areas.

Above is a Tree Swallow that I photographed at Daniel Webster. It was breeding season, in fact I had just seen a pair mating at one of the bird houses, and this bird was far more interested in its own affairs than it was in me even when I was just a few feet away.

Tree Swallows are cavity nesters, so bird houses are just what they love. At Borderland State Park near the old White Farm house bird houses are incorporated into the fencing. Tree Swallows usually are the occupants. I can see where in a time before pesticides Tree Swallows would have been valuable neighbors.

Down in the field at Attleboro Springs, MA Audubon they have a scattering of bird houses around the edges of the field. Earlier this year I photographed this tree swallow poking its head out of one of the boxes. Obviously a pair had taken up residence.

 Yesterday I was back down in Attleboro, checking out the field for butterflies, and noticed a lot of activity around the bird house.

 Parents were being kept busy bringing food to the young ones inside the house.  The parent was really shoving it down the throat of this young bird.

Another view of young birds being fed. From the look of them, I would say they are almost old enough to be out of the nest box, learning to fly and catch their own bugs.

That is it for today, for more information about Tree Swallows click on the link attached to the first mention of their name in the first paragraph. Per usual comments are welcome.

Some Flower Photographs

OK I sort of promised flower photographs in my last update.

A little personal history. Back in the 1980's I started walking in the Blue Hills Reservation which is just outside of Boston, MA. I decided to sign up for a sponsored walk that would take a group from one side of the Reservation to the other, about 8 miles. We didn't finish the walk, one of the hikers in our group blew out her knee and couldn't finish, but along the way our leader had pointed out the various wild flowers that were just coming into bloom. I got interested, and thought it would be a good way to motivate my walks, looking for new wild flowers to ID. So I purchased a Petterson Guide to Wildflowers and spent the next several years on the hunt. No camera, those were back in the days of film and I couldn't afford either the film or the camera, but I did try to draw some of the flowers I found. After several years I had to give it up, just walking in the woods would cause my eyes to water and my nose to run. I had become allergic to something, probable leaf litter molds.

After a break of about 20 years I started walking again, wanted to get in shape and loose some weight. Thankfully I seemed to have outgrown (aged out) of the allergy. But I also try to stay on trails that don't have leaf litter. By that time I had acquired a digital camera (for the blog actually) and it was a no brainer to begin making photographs of the flowers I found.

So here we are thousands of photographs later, above is a clump of Blue Eyed Grass, photo was made at Massasoit State Park, East Taunton, Ma. this June.

Not a wild flower and certainly not a native one to MA, but I love poppies. This one was blooming in the bird/butterfly garden at Oak Knoll a MA Audubon Sanctuary in Attleboro, MA. Also photographed this June.

Not sure if these are native Iris or imported ones, but these were growing in the water at Lake Rico in Massasoit State Park, East Taunton, MA. I don't believe the blue iris are as invasive as the yellow ones, so please if you want to plant water iris plant the blue not the yellow.

These next two photos I just like the lighting (image) I captured. Another not native flower, I believe this is Evening Lychnis, or as Go Bottany calls it White Campion, but I could be wrong, there are a couple flowers that look a lot alike with just small variations. But I am pretty sure I am right. Photographed at Ames Nowell State Park, Abinton, MA. also in June.

Last flower image, is Daisy Fleabane, this is a native plant, one found in open fields and waste areas. Still I think it can be a pretty flower and I really like this photo. Photographed at Ames Nowell State Park, Abington, MA. June 2017.

Sorry I can't resist, the Checkerspots are back at Attleboro Springs field. Not in huge numbers but they are back as of this week. Above is a photo of a Baltimore Checkerspot I made at the site, love their orange eyes and tips of antennae. Checkerspots are a very pretty mid sized butterfly.

That is it for today. As noted previously comments are welcome. Though I have a feeling I have lost most of my readers. There will be art again, eventually, I just don't want to promise when.

Matisse in the Studio

Late last week I took a trip into Boston to met a friend at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. First time I had been back to the museum for several months. A combination of things has kept me away, mostly weather related. Then I get out of the habit and just end up not making the trip. Not good, as there are several exhibits at the museum that I want to spend more time with. On this trip the main focus was the Matisse in the Studio Exhibit which is in the large gallery space. Though we also spent time in the Botticelli exhibit.

Henri Matisse was a French Artist who along with several other Artists was involved with the beginnings of modern art in Paris around 1900.  Unlike Picasso who worked at developing his artistic skills as a young man Matisse didn't discover art until after he had started a career in law as a court administrator. While he was recuperating from an illness his mother gave him some art supplies and he fell in love with art. He then returned to school in Paris to study art. If you wish to read more about Matisse click on the link embedded in his name above and read a full biography.

The exhibit pairs his paintings (selected as representing his entire career) with objects from his studio that he had collected or had been given and then used in his paintings. Matisse liked to paint from life.

In the painting above it is the screen and table that were items in his studio. Both are in the exhibit.

Both the tree above and the lithograph below are from a later time in his career/life, when he along with Picasso was interested in simplifying drawings and design. Course the men were lifelong friends by then and probably discussed their goals with their art.

I find that I enjoy looking at these simplified images. And I have to say that it isn't as easy to do as Matisse makes it look. 

Matisse was also known for his use of color, which can be seen in the painting I posted at the head of this post. 

I am not going to say much about the Botticelli exhibit though it includes paintings from his instructor. While I enjoyed viewing the works I can't say that I really admire them. I can only take so many virgin's with child before I have had enough, and Botticelli lived at a time when religious art was the main stay of his career. They do have one of his Venus paintings, and another that shows Athena with a centaur, both classical themes that again I find a bit, wearing. That said both paintings are beautifully executed and if you like art of that period (Renaissance) are worth a visit to the MFA to see.

One totally non relevant comment, in the Matisse exhibit I saw a man going around to each painting and photographing it. He didn't bother to look at the paintings, well only enough to make the photograph, and then quickly moved on to the next one. What was he doing? Did he not have time to spend in the exhibit and wanted to document that he had been there? Did he honestly think he could study the paintings in his photographs as if he were in front of the actual works? By the way you can't, photographs lie, and gallery lighting isn't good enough for a really good photo. It seemed very strange to me. While I made a few photos (for the blog) I don't usually even try to photograph paintings. I am more likely to photograph sculpture or other works and then more as a memory jogger rather than as something I would study at leisure. As far as I am concerned he was just wasting his time and perhaps looking for bragging rights. Oh well it takes all kinds.

That is it for today. Next blog post will probably be pretty flower pictures.

Anphibians

The flower photo above is just because I like it, the flowers/plants are cow vetch (the purple) and sheep sorrel, the reddish spikes.

Amphibians are animals that while they may live on land have to return to the water to lay eggs, and their young go through a stage where they have to live in water.  Today I am focusing on two groups of amphibians: Toads and Frogs. Some Frogs live on land all the time and others prefer to live in the water. Toads are pretty much land based once the emerge from the water. Massachusetts has Two Toads, five True Frogs and Two Tree Frog species.  So far I have managed to photograph one type of Toad, four of the five True Frogs and none of the Tree Frogs in the wild

The above photo made in April 2015 at Borderland State Park shows a toad in the water with an inflated throat for a Toad call. I chanced to be there on the day that the American Toads were breeding. The sounds attracted my attention first, then I noticed the activities in the water. The toads were hopping about, making toad noises, and swimming around, occasionally there would be some activity in the water that had things stirred up, toads piling on top of each other. Well really the males were piling on top a female who was laying eggs, but I couldn't see that in detail. Unfortunately they were a bit too far away for me to really document the event.  There were hundreds of toads, or at least it seemed like there were that many, I had certainly never seen so many in one place before or since. 

The above photo was made this year in May in Massasoit State Park and shows tadpoles in the water. I don't know what kind, maybe bullfrogs which I know live in the lakes at Massasoit.  Anyway tadpoles are the intermediate stage for amphibians, they have to live in the water and develop (slowly) into adults.

The above photo is of a very young very small American Toad, made at Borderland in Aug. of 2015, please realize that this little toad was about the size of my thumbnail (3/4 inch) which is why the quality of the photo isn't very good.

Above is an adult American Toad, photographed this May at Massasoit State Park. I have been seeing a lot of toads there this year, 4 yesterday which is what sparked this blog post.

Now for some frog photos:

Pickerel Frog, this one was photographed this spring at Massasoit State Park, these frogs in my experience tend to wander away from water, though they aren't strictly terrestrial. 

Bull Frog, also photographed at Massasoit State Park this spring. These guys prefer to live in the water at the edges of ponds. 

Green Frog, and yes that is its name not just its color. This one was photographed at Houghton's Pond in the Blue Hills Reservation, September of 2012. These frogs also prefer to stay close to water, though in heavy rain they made head for the woods.

Wood Frogs, the top one photographed in a vernal pool this spring at Borderland State Park. The 2nd was photographed at Fowl Meadow part of the Blue Hills Reservation, Summer 2016. These frogs as their name indicates live in the woods.

Some day I hope to photograph the frog I am so far missing, the Leopard Frog. I doubt I will ever see a tree frog, they mostly live up in the trees which I don't climb. Oh yes you can relax now, most likely the next update will be flowers, no promises, but in the meantime comments are welcome.

A Change of Purpose

Originally the purpose of this blog was to document my development as an artist. Laid off from my job I had decided to go back to school and develop my ignored art skills. The problem is after so many years I find that my focus has mostly switched from drawing to photography.

Last fall I purchased a new camera which is allowing me to make much better photos of everything, including birds, which with my old camera had been pretty much off the table unless I was right on top of them.

To get these photos I spend more time outside on walks. Which is good don't get me wrong, but it leaves less time for art. Then when I am home I have to spend time on the computer evaluating and sorting the photos I have made so again more time spent that can't be used for art. Then there are the other chores of living, cooking and eating food, shopping for food etc. Now I know that creating drawings doesn't have to take a lot of time but... OK I will admit it, I am just not motivated at the moment. So my other activities of reading and playing games on my tablet seem to come out ahead. All this means that I have been neglecting the blog, not good.

I have decided to stop letting lack of art for the blog stop me from updating it. I have photographs. Granted I share some of them on Facebook, others I post to a photo sharing site for artists. But I hope those who follow my blog will also be interested in reading about my walks and looking at photos. I am not ruling out posting art. If I make some I will post it.

Earlier this week I visited Houghton's Pond in the Blue Hills Reservation. I was looking for anything interesting to photograph per usual, dragonflies, butterflies, birds, and wild flowers top my list, but sometimes there are frogs or toads or other animals. The walk that day seemed a bit disappointing. There was a Spicebush Swallowtail, one of the 4 black swallowtails in MA. but it didn't stop fluttering its wings so the photos I made of it just didn't turn out well. Note: there is a Spicebush Swallowtail on my butterfly page that did hold still if you are curious about what they look like.

There were these blooming water plants, that so far I have not been able to identify, blooming in the pond that feeds into Houghton's Pond. As I was about to leave the site I decided to go look at another pond that is at the far end of the parking lot. There was a family of Canada Geese swimming around and feeding. Then I noticed a bird in the tree just above me. And made the next series of photos. 

 Just a tail is visible in the above photo and also what looks like some grass hanging down.  There aren't a lot of orange birds so my interest was caught.

Here you get to see the head, identifying the bird as a female Baltimore Oriole, note the mass of what looks like grass below her.

 In this photo she is holding something in her beak, looks like a dried grass to me.

My final photo, when I first started photographing her I thought she was hunting for food in the branches of the tree,  and I was trying for a body shot, turns out she was building a nest, I will l have to keep on eye on this tree in my future visits to the Pond. 

Last photo is a view of the beach at Houghton's Pond where locals can come to swim (well get wet, the lifeguards don't really want people swimming) and sit in the sun for free. It is a small pond, the walk around it is about a mile, but they have picnic tables and grills so it is a popular spot.

One last comment, my Esty shop is closed. Esty has made changes to their payment policy that I am not going along with, I will be taking down the links at some point but just wanted to post a FYI.

Back to Watercolor with Pen and Ink

Today's blog update is actually revisiting work I did in May (or earlier) but never got posted to the blog. What can I say, my bad. With the return of warmer weather I am spending a lot of time out and about with my camera. Photographing flowers, butterflies, Odes and anything else I see that will hold still long enough. Leaving me not a lot of time or energy for my art or the blog. That said I am trying to get back to doing daily sketches. These are just very quick drawings usually with pen but sometimes as in my last update graphite. The sketches will probably be the art I will be posting for most of the summer now that I have these pen and ink works posted.

The above is about postcard sized. On cold press watercolor paper I first laid down a wash. No real pre-planning with these, I just pick a couple of colors and then work it from there, no rules except I like to keep the colors fairly light so that the ink work will show up. Once the paper is dry I look at the resulting wash and try to think what would look good on it. For the above piece I decided that abstract/geometric would probably be best, so hauling out my compass I drew various sized circles in pencil then got to work inking.

I used my technical pens for this, mostly the 0, and the 00 tips  So here it is, not sure if I like it or not, it was certainly more work than I expected when I started it.

These next two are ATC's or Artists Trading Cards, so the size is 3.5 x 2.5 inches. For these I used hot press watercolor paper and kept the watercolor washes very simple just a couple of colors.

The above is based on some of my photos of Jack in the Pulpits. I love those flowers and have tried to use them in my art in the past, with mixed results. This card I like, course the pink might seem a bit strange but I am not going for total realism here so for me it works.

With the background colors I selected for this card, I though water so drew a couple of fish, again revisiting previous art work, though these aren't really copies of what I have done before, just similar. I textured the background to make the fish stand out. I thought about adding some texture to the fish bodies, but decided that if I did that then the fish would just blend into the background instead of standing out. I decided to do minimal ink work on the fish bodies. I am not sure about the water plants, I thought I wanted something to add a bit more interest, but after I had done it, I was kind of sorry.

This past week I spent a day in Boston, mostly so I could make photographs, but I also made a side trips to the Boston MFA and to the Public Library. While there I made this quick sketch of a fellow patron. His thumb is a bit out of wack, proportion wise, to the rest of him, but I am not totally displeased with how this came out. Done in my small sketch book with a Copic .2 Multiliner pen.  

It is surprisingly difficult to get a good photo of a waterlily. Mostly because they are usually in the middle (or at least not near the edge) of ponds, and I don't have a boat. The one in the above photo was actually next to a rock near to shore, so I was able to photograph over the rock for the above photo. I cranked up the ISO so that the shadows would show up. Finally a water lily photo I am pleased with.

This is a photo of Copley Square taken from the steps of the Boston Public Library. I can't recall the name of the church in the square but it is rather well known. What I find interesting in this photo is the John Hancock building with it's reflective glass windows. On the side facing the viewer you can see reflected clouds, making it a bit hard to actually make out the building. Fun effect and very Boston. Though when I first moved to Boston back in the 1970's the building was covered with plywood because the windows kept pooping out of their frames, took a bit of engineering and a law suit to resolve the problems. But resolve them they did, I haven't heard of any glass falling for years.

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