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.

A butterfly, some tulips and figure dwgs

Over the 4th of July weekend we had some hot weather, well hot for us here in the Northeast US. Temps were in the low to middle 90's and the night time temp didn't make it out of the 70's as a low. When you add high humidity to the mix it makes for some very uncomfortable weather. However prior to the heat setting in I managed to draw the above drawing of a skipper butterfly feeding at a clover flower. The drawing is from a photograph I made this spring

I don't usually draw the butterflies I photograph so this was a change and a challenge for me. I am rather pleased with how it came out, though I didn't try to put in too many background details. Skippers are usually fairly small butterflies, about an inch in length so they are a challenge to photograph. This one is sort of an orange color with not much in the way of markings making it one of the easier butterflies to draw.

This second drawing I finished just this week and is also from a photograph I made this spring. This is of some yellow tulips planted by a near-by town in one of their road islands. I am thinking about redoing this drawing with colored pencil.

I find tulips are a very satisfactory flower to draw, large with some what simple petals, but still enough shape to offer a challenge to the artist. I can see why the Dutch were so taken with them back in the 1630's.

The above and the following drawings were all made at the last June short pose drawing session I attended. The model for that evening was stuck in traffic on her way to the Studio from work so Scott posed facial gestures for us to get us started. Above are just 2 of the drawings I made while we waited for her to arrive.

The model did finally arrive, there had been an accident that totally messed up traffic, not fun for the driver, been there done that. Anyway because she was late she didn't do any 2 minute poses for us but went straight for 5 minute poses. Above are some of my better efforts.

She ended the evening with some longer poses (10 and 15 min.), above is the only one that I liked, though I have to say that the more I look at it the more problems I see with it. Ah well such is life. I have to say that the short poses can be a real challenge esp. when there is a lot of foreshortening involved with the pose. I keep reminding myself to draw what I see, not what I think I see.

Because of the heat I haven't been out doing a lot of walking or making photographs, still I do have a couple of interesting ones to share. The above photo is of Indian Pipe, a parasitic plant that grows in the woods when there has been enough rain. They take their nutrients from either leaf litter or tree roots. I didn't realize that they actually had pollen until I photographed this bumble bee at one of the flowers. I thought they were a relative of mushrooms and had spores. The white stems will turn black as they age. Photographed at Oak Knoll a MA Audubon site in Attleboro, MA.

Above is a photograph of a dragonfly resting on some Daisy Flea Bane. I just love the colors on this type of dragonfly, black with the blue accents. This is probably a male letting off pheromones to attract a female since it wasn't actually landing on a flower. Photograph made in my local city park here in Brockton.

That is it for today. Per usual comments are welcome, though I have to admit that I made a change to the blog settings a couple of weeks ago and now don't seem to be able to comment on my own blog, I apologize  to those who commented and I haven't responded to, I am thinking about changing the setting back to where it was so I can comment again.

Mainly Nature Journal Pages

Started another animal drawing this weekend, this time a chipmunk. Above is about where I am with it, not quite done, but I feel I have a good start with it.

They are cute for a rodent, I am just happy that they prefer to stay outside. This little one is from a photograph I made at the Trailside Museum in Milton, MA. in the area where people feed the ducks. The chipmunks hang around and if the ducks aren't fast enough will pick up some of the extra duck food.

I have drawn chipmunks before, some more successfully than others, this one is turning out pretty well. I have also spent some time on the Mallard, she isn't quite done but further along than my last update.

Next  up are a couple of pages from my nature journal. With these two I am almost caught up to myself.

The above page is from a visit to Daniel Webster, Ma Audubon Site in Marshfield, MA on September 17. Water level in the man made pond was down from the previous week. Which wasn't a surprise since gone the week between my visits without any rain.. Thankfully it has rained this weekend and I am hoping to see higher water levels on my next visit to the sanctuary. Anyway I obviously did another drawing of my tree stump to indicate the lower water level.

Drawing at the top left is of an oak leaf with acorn that I found on a tree growing in one of the wooded areas. I believe this is a swamp white oak. The leaf isn't as deeply grooved as a standard white oak and the acorn, while it has the bumpy cap, is a bit larger than the other white oak acorns I have been finding.

The last drawing is of a wild flower called butter and eggs. It is another of those plants introduced by Europeans that had a medicinal use, escaped from the garden it is now common in open fields and waste areas. Flowers except for coloration and size look similar to Garden Snapdragons.

The page above is from a visit to Oak Knoll in Attleboro, MA. lots of oak leaves and acorns. At least this year I am finally able to ID some of the oak leaves by using associated acorns. The only one I am still not quite sure of is the Black and Scarlet Oaks, their leaves and acorns look very similar.

I first ID this leaf/acorn combination as being from a Black Oak, but decided that no, it is probably from a Scarlet Oak, though I have to say I am not totally positive. Fall color of the leaf would probably be the best way to really figure it out, the Scarlet oak leaves turn scarlet in the fall but I doubt I will be able to find this particular tree again so will just have to keep watching.

On my walk I spotted a grey squirrel climbing a tree and thought that it would make a good addition to this page, after all the squirrels love to eat acorns. Hopefully they are all busy squirreling away this years crop for the coming winter.

Two photographs today. The one above is from a visit to Stony Brook, where I saw a Great Blue Heron. Not the best photograph, but not my worst either, here you can see the Heron taking off from the shore of the pond, legs aren't quite in flight position.

The photograph above is of New England Asters in bloom with an American Copper Butterfly, made at Oak Knoll where they have a lovely garden, lots of flowers so attractive to butterflies.

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