Morning Dove and flowers

I did it, I finally finished the drawing of the Morning Dove that I started last year. They are slightly odd looking birds, sort of pear shaped, with small heads and round bodies. I usually see groups of them around the feeders at Daniel Webster. This one was sitting on a dead branch in the panne where I photographed it last summer. I wouldn't consider them very bright birds, but they are very alert and startle easily flying off at the least little thing.

Drawing was done on Stonehenge paper with graphite, size is 6.5 x 8 inches. The water had a lot of floating algae last summer which is why it looks a bit spotty. So I now have 7 of these done and need to select my next animal and get started on a new drawing. I want to get at least 12 done so I can put together a calender for next year using them.

I was doodling the other evening and came up with a design for flowers that I then carried over to this drawing. I added some ink and colored pencil to achieve the final look that you see. I didn't spend a lot of time on it so the colored pencil isn't very evenly laid down. Still I kind of like it and I may do an ATC card with this style of flower, not real of course but very fun to draw.

I liked the doodle I was working on also, and ended up enlarging it so I could transfer it to better paper for a more finished drawing. That one I am still working on and will hopefully have an in progress image of that one later in the week.

Above is more playing around with ideas for my cookbook images. This one would be for the dinner or soup section.

During my walk in the Bluehills the other day I saw a downed white pine tree. It was a fairly old/large tree and I took some time to photograph the broken stump. I just find the colors/textures of this to be quite interesting.

When my sister and I were visiting the Chicago Art Institute there was a room that had a replica of a fallen tree in it. The tree replica was over 20 feet long and the truck of the tree was very much larger (many feet larger) than this example, but I think I was thinking of that tree when I photographed this one.

That is it for today. Hope everyone is having a good week, and per usual comments are welcome.

Morning Dove Dwg and stuff

I have started my new animal drawing, and since I couldn't face any more grass, at least in the near future, I selected a photograph I made of a Morning Dove at the Panne at Daniel Webster. Not close to finished but it is a bit further along than many of the in-process scans I post. I have just started on the feathers and need to spend a lot more time on them. The tree branch it is sitting on is starting to take form, and I  have taken the time to tone the background. Since the background is water there won't be a lot more work to be done on it.

Morning Doves are sort of odd shaped birds with their pear shaped bodies and small heads. Still their feathers are rather pretty, not to mention the fact that I can't be too selective when it comes to the animals I can get a close photograph of, one with enough details for me to draw the animal. So if my drawings seem to be of ordinary animals that is why.

As a break between my realistic animal drawings I spent some time with pen and ink and Inktense pencils to create another bookmark. This is loosely based on Zentangle patterns for the ink work, I added color with the Inktense pencils and then added a bit of water to brighten the colors and blend them together. The Stonehenge paper is heavy enough to take a bit of water without a lot of warping so it works out fairly well. I still have to add a tassel to this one but I picked up some black embroidery floss yesterday so should get to that this afternoon or evening.

I have been posting some of my bookmarks for sale on my Esty account if any one is interested.

Because of Sandy our Monday night drawing session was canceled and moved to Wednesday night (Halloween). I think I should have stayed at home. I am not at all happy with this drawing. Partly it was me, partly the model (she is twitchy and can't seem to hold/keep the pose from one break to the next) and partly the lighting. For some reason Scott went back to direct overhead lighting, and the model whose face is quite delicate was sitting so that her whole face was mostly in shadow. UGH, the foot doesn't even look like a foot,,the way she was curled up on the sofa it was pointed directly toward me. I know I need to learn how to draw under all circumstances, but this direct over head lighting is going to take me a bit to figure out.

Ah well there is always next week, and hopefully a different light source.

As a final image I have a photograph I made at Borderland State Park. The image is of one of the open fields around the old farm house that is on the property. They mow the fields in the summer to keep them open, and you can see the color in the trees that edge the field.

That is it for today. Hope everyone has a great weekend, and per usual comments are always welcome.

Nature Journal Updates and Stuff

Above is a pencil drawing that I worked on one evening when I wasn't reading but didn't want to draw a subject. Shapes are from nature, plants, flowers and a type of fungus that I came across on one of my walks earlier this summer. Some parts of this I like and think work and other parts I don't think work. Not a lot of time or energy in this so I guess I just consider it a study that might or might not go anywhere. 

These next two images are from my nature Journal. I have been walking and writing in the journal but haven't been keeping up with my drawings. I have photos and since it has been my practice to use the photos as reference I have started to go back to the journal and work on the drawings I have missed.

The page above is from a visit to Daniel Webster. Top image is the tree trunk in the panne showing the dropping water level. The bottom is of a morning dove stitting on one of the branches they have arranged around the panne in front of the blinds so birds have a place to perch. I don't usually see Morning Doves at the pond, but I did on this day and thought it would work for one of my illustrations.

The page above documents a visit to Ellisville Harbor State Park over in Plymouth, MA. I picked the oak leaf from a tree that was growing fairly close to the beach. It is from a species of White Oak, but I couldn't narrow it down any further than that. Shape isn't quite the same as the white oak leaf I drew last year, but then that could simply be cause by where on the tree it was growing.

Bottom drawing is of a crab shell that I saw on the beach. I didn't turn the shell over but I am sure it was empty the crab having been dinner for some shore bird, maybe the Osprey, but more likely a seagull.

Ellisville Harbor had a nesting pair of Osprey this summer who raised 2 young. The young birds while fledged were still around the nest during my visit. The 3rd image on this page is of the Osprey nest stand. I didn't even try to draw the birds.

Actually I didn't see the birds until I was back near the fresh water pond, at that point all 4 birds, parents and fledged young were back either on the nest or near it. I gather that the adults were still feeding their young even though they were able to fly and look for their own food. It does take a while for young raptors to learn how to feed themselves.

I still have a bit of a backlog of figure drawings that I have done but not posted. This drawing is from earlier this month. Scott was back from VT. though away on a vacation for this weeks session. The model in the pose was running the session for us. I am not totally thrilled with this one, but then again it isn't too bad either. I do like the shading and the way form is defined by lights and darks more than by a drawn line.

If I could say I was working toward anything particular with my drawings it would be that, the use of shading instead of line to provide the shapes. Not always possible, as the foot is drawn with line but the upper back is all shading.

Not the best photo, the birds which are Snowy Egrets were a bit too far away from me. Still it was a thrill to see three of them in the same estuary. My arrival is what caused them to take flight. Snowy Egrets are beginning to make a comeback here in MA. but it is not a bird I see all that often. Later I saw 2 Great Blue Herons in the same Estuary just in different locations. The location for the photograph was Ellisville Harbor, and the beach is just beyond the line of dark green you see in the photo.

One last image, I was photographing butterflies this weekend (see flickr site for those photos) and saw this brown grasshopper sitting on a black eyed susan. I just had to take its photo and I think it turned out really well. Insects are such strange creatures, this one with its brown eye doesn't even look alive to me, though of course it was.

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

Some Computer Art, a Journal Page and a Figure

I don't usually make a lot of computer art. Obviously when I was taking Graphic Design classes everything had to be done on the computer, but for the past year or so I have been focusing on my drawn (as in pencil/pen and paper) art. Still for Christmas this year I found myself wanting some new tags for my gift wrapping but didn't have either the time or inspiration to work on them at that time. Since I have been home from my Christmas holidays I have challenged myself to come up with some new tag designs for next year.

These first two images are what I have come up with so far. Any critiques, comments or suggestions would be welcome. Both have been done in Adobe Illustrator. It has been interesting trying to remember my skills in that program, but I think I have managed fairly well. The snowflakes were esp. fun to create. Though I have to admit I was getting a bit tired of the process by the time I did the fifth one so I cheated and just reused one for the background snowflake.

This design was a bit more straight forward, except for the text on path, which took me a bit to remember how to do. Then felt somewhat the idiot because it is really very easy in Illustrator, Corel Draw is the program where it was a pia to put text on a path. .

Above is my journal page from yesterday's visit to Daniel Webster in Marshfield. The top drawing is of a Turtle Dove that I saw in the woods. Usually I only see the turtle doves around the feeders, and there they are mostly on the ground. So to see one in a tree in the woods was unusual, well for me.

The lower sketch is of some bushes over by the River. I drew them because I have drawn them before, but last time there was a nest still in among the branches. Yesterday I noticed the nest was gone. Not quite sure when it vanished. I am sometimes not as observant as I would like to be. But I think it probably happened over the weekend when we had some very strong winds.

Above is last nights figure drawing. The model was almost in a pin-up pose. I have to say that I found this pose much more satisfactory to draw than last weeks. Course that is partly my own fault, I should have moved last week for a better view.

Below are a couple of photographs I want to share:

The above photo was made in Blue Hills Reservation Saturday. It shows what is left of the old Route 128 two lane roadway. The current Route 128 is a 6 lane (or more) limited access highway that circles Boston and was mainly built back in the 1950's. When they built the new highway this stretch of road was abandoned and the land it is on was made part of the Blue Hills Reservation. A trade I am sure for the land they took for the larger highway. I didn't quite follow it to the end of pavement, but some other day I will.

It was a bit strange walking this road and knowing that I wouldn't see any cars on it, just other walkers. It is in surprisingly good shape for a road that has been unused for so long. But notice that the trees have grown right at the blacktops edge, something that would never happen on an in-use road.

The image above is from Daniel Webster made yesterday on my walk, I just like the colors and the interplay of light and shadow.

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