Nature Journal, a carving, and faces

Above is another of my catch up Nature Journal pages. This one is about a year old and is from a visit to Daniel Webster, Marshfield, MA on April 9, 2013. As I recall it was a good day for a visit, the water in the Panne was high, note how much of the tree truck is under water and there were several interesting duck visitors. On that day there were blue wing teal and this Northern Shoveler swimming also saw a pair of Mallard ducks mating and a pair of wood ducks.  Out in the fields there were blue birds and a hawk.

What the Shoveler was doing in MA I have no clue, they are mostly a Canadian and mid-western bird. This one must of gotten totally lost, and this poor male certainly wasn't going to find a mate in our local waters, hopefully he flew up to Canada and found more of his kind for company.

If you can make them out note how many turtles were hauled out on the tree stump (8) and there was one sitting on some floating reeds, that were part of the flotsam left after winter storms. How the one turtle got where it was on the tip of the stump I have no clue, I wouldn't have thought it possible for something that size (it was fairly large) to get itself in that position what with the stiff shell.

When I was in Chicago over Christmas, not this year but last year, I took a stroll around my sister's Chicago neighborhood photographing buildings of interest. One of the buildings had this carved panel next to one of its doorways. There is kind of a challenge in the WetCanvas Drawing forum to draw something architectural. While this isn't a building or a room it is architectural in that it is part of a building.

I don't recall which building it was on, obviously something that was built a long time ago as most modern buildings don't bother with carvings, hard to find the talent and even if you do the cost can get pretty steep. As I recall this building has been designated a Chicago Historical landmark so at least this carving is safe, though there was some damage (which I didn't show)

Done with graphite in my sketchbook, it deserves more time than I gave it, still I am relatively pleased with it.

Was out at the laundry-mat today and took my sketch book with me, above are some of the faces and sketches made while waiting for my clothes to wash. At least there were people in the laundry-mat, some days it is fairly empty.

Last photograph today is some more Daffodils, these are blooming in front of our Public Library. Made this the other day as today we had clouds and rain. Thankfully the hail and the thunder storms missed my area.

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

Primulas and Illustrations

Primulas again, this time the watercolor version I have been working on for several days. It turned out much better than I expected it to about a week ago. At that point I was wondering if I should even bother to work on it more. What a difference a few days and a lot of work can make.

Done for two reasons, one I want to work on my watercolor skills. And lets be clear here mine are minimal, and because this was one of the challenge images for the WetCanvas Florals and/Botanical forum.  Since I am not doing wet into wet techniques my watercolors take shape over several days/sessions, applying washes of color, using a wet brush to lift out color, applying more color, until I get the look/result I want.

I did do a very light outline pencil drawing of the flowers prior to starting the painting. Done on Cansons 140lb watercolor paper, it is very small only 3.5 x 5 inches.

I am still reading the painting techniques book, and have moved on from basic techniques to some more adventurous ones, like salt spatter (which I have seen done on fabric), wax resist (another fabric technique) and line and wash. The latter I have done, usually with India ink which is waterproof usually prior to applying the watercolor but it can also be done after or even while the paint is wet.

I may put the cook book I have been working on aside for long stretches of time, but every now and then I get an idea for an Illustration for it and spend time playing around with it. That is what the above colored pencil sketch is all about.

I started with some onions added what look like garlic cloves, the small chopping block and a knife. To complete the graphic I added the words chop, chop all done first in pen and then added color pencil.

I like the freshness of this but think it is a bit too rough to actually use as an illustration so have done some further exploring of these images.

Yesterday I sat down and sketched from life this time, the above. Onions out of the fridge, a partially used garlic clove and my paring knife. Didn't add a chopping block but I probably should have. Anyway I have brought this image into Illustrator and will see where it goes from there.

Even though spring has officially arrived and we have actually had several days of semi warm weather (temp. into the low 50's) the past couple of days have been a reprise of our winter weather and very cold.

The icicle you see above is maple sap that has frozen. The tree (I think a silver maple) has suckers growing around the base, since the tree is next to a sidewalk these stems obstruct the path and some have been broken off (I am one of those responsible for the breakage) So with the warmer days and the sun heating both truck and ground the tree has rising sap which leaks out the end of the breaks. With the cold they have created icicles.

Maple syrup is the result of harvesting the sap of Sugar Maples (the above sap wouldn't be sweet) and boiling it down. For Native Americans here in the northeast it would have been their primary sweetener and the trees highly valued.

That is it for today, hopefully the forecast blizzard due tomorrow will stay out at sea and we will only get a couple of inches of snow, anyway comments are always appreciated

Sunflowers, shoes and pears

Above is a small watercolor that I just finished. It is from a photograph of Jerusalem Artichoke flowers I made a couple of years ago at Massasoit State Park in E. Taunton, MA. The Jerusalem Artichoke (one of its many common names) is a native North American sun flower. The roots were eaten by Native Americans. The plants bloom in September with lots of tall stems and showy yellow flowers. 

Anyway I did the ink drawing of the sunflowers while I was on vacation in Chicago over Christmas but waited until I got home to work on the watercolor portion. I find it slow going to paint flowers, these took more than one session with paints and brush to reach a point where I felt they were done. The painting is small, post card size (4 x 6 inches) on heavy (120lb) watercolor paper done with my Travel sized Winsor Newton watercolor box.  

I have mixed feelings about using watercolor, I like the results when I can get the look I want, but don't really like the process. But maybe that is just my lack of skill. My technique is to use thin layers of color to build up to the final results. Not for me the one stroke of the brush and calling it done type of painting. I admire those who can paint that way, but it doesn't seem to work for me. 

These next two images are me working on my still life's. This time with shoes. The one above was done with Derwent Graphtint pencils. They seem to be a cross between watercolor and graphite pencils. I have about a dozen of these in various tones that were a Christmas present a couple of years ago. Anyway, I draw with the pencils first then apply water with a damp brush and watch what happens.

A couple of years ago if someone had told me I would be drawing shoes again I think I would have thrown something at them. When I was taking classes at the Community College it seemed like every instructor wanted us to draw shoes, so I drew shoes, and more shoes and then again more shoes until I was totally sick of shoes. Now here I am a few years later finally willing to tackle the subject/object again. They are after all complex shapes and readily available, who knew.

Same shoes but a different day and slightly different pose, this drawing was done directly with ink using one of my technical pens.

This time the subject was pears, I actually used the same pear just different positions for these drawings, the one above was done with the Graphtinit pencils and water. Because these are being done on cheap sketchbook paper you can see where the paper has wrinkled from the water, with the scan it gives an interesting visual effect.

The pears above were first drawn with pen and ink then scanned into Photoshop where I added the colors and grey shading. Colors aren't totally realistic as this was a Bosc pear, but realism wasn't really my goal I just wanted to play and see what I could come up with. There are about 4 different colors on each pear, does give them a bit more depth then I would see otherwise.

Above is another photograph from my walk the other day. I need to get out with the camera today as we now have about 6 inches of cold snow on the ground. If I get back over to this park I may take another photograph of this piece of art work. Brockton doesn't have a lot of municipal artwork but there is some scattered here and there.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome. Hope anyone reading this who is in the Northern hemisphere is staying warm this cold winter.

Life Drawings Part 2

A quick update today, only 2 images from last nights drawing session. Above is my pencil sketch, which I actually rather like, though the face on the colored pencil sketch looks more like the model. I have the head sizes a bit different and to be honest I am not sure which is more correct. I think the one above, but when I realized I might have it wrong on the colored pencil drawing it was a bit late to try and correct it so I left it as it was.  I spent more time on the graphite pencil drawing, and don't feel I did as well with the colored pencil drawing this week. Ah well, what can I say, other then there is always next week.

I almost didn't go last night, we had a very hot muggy day, and the studio being on the 4th floor can get very hot, thankfully the daytime artist had the AC turned on so the temp. wasn't too bad last night , quite bearable in fact.

Well I need to go work on my challenge quilt. Comments as always welcome.