Nature Journal, WIP and a Figure

Not a lot of work to post today so I am again starting with my Nature Journal page from my visit to Daniel Webster MA Audubon Sanctuary yesterday. The day was more March like weather wise then some of the days we had in March. Temp in the mid 40's with off and on clouds (with rain) and sun. Thankfully it didn't rain while I was in the Sanctuary but it had on my drive over.

Drawings for this page are some more turtles, these were clustered on a rock in the pond. The water level is going down and we could really use a good soaking rain. I don't like the gloomy weather but. The bottom image is of an Eastern Phoebe sitting on the end of a branch. They come to the pond to find insects and tend to sit on branches until they spot one, then it swoops in to collect its snack returning to a perch for more watching. I was very happy to see these birds back again this spring, they are one of those that leave for the winter.

The green wing teal were also in evidence at the pond, I had a chance for a good photo but botched it by making too much noise in the blind, scaring the bird into flying off. If they hang around longer I may manage a good photo, but I am not holding my breath. Oh I also saw a female Osprey on their nest stand. Unfortunately the stand is so far away that you need field glasses to even make it out, so no chance for photos there.

I have been busily working on this stipple border piece. So far so good, 2 corners done and one side. Not a lot to say about it, but so far I am pleased with how it is coming out. I am going to have to start thinking about what to put in the center soon.

Above is last nights figure drawing. Some parts I am pleased with and others, well there is always next week. A new model to me, though I gather she modeled for Scot several years ago so she was known to him.

We had a good sized group last night so it was a fun evening.

I have been going through some of my older art work and destroying it these past few days. Mostly short pose drawings from my figure class 3 years ago. I would prefer to just toss them in the trash but I don't want anyone "rescuing" them so feel better about it when I tear things up. I really need to weed out some of my figure drawings that I did in past couple of years. A few are good, many are OK but some are not very good at all. Even paper accumulates when one is busy creating art.

Finally I have a couple of photographs from my visit to Daniel Webster yesterday. Above is an apple tree just starting to bud out. Should be apple blossoms before the end of the month.

Above is my reference photo for my turtle sketch in the Nature Journal. The two on the left were just hauling themselves out of the water to join the 3 already on the rock. The do seem to like to pile up, and notice that they are mostly all of the same size. I am sure there is a reason but I don't know what it is. Oh, I believe these are all painted turtles, we have other varieties in the state (notably snapping turtles) but I have only noticed painted turtles in the pond.

That is it for today, I will hopefully have some new pen and ink drawings for the next update. The April Challenge photo's are up in the WetCanvas pen and ink forum, and I have told myself that I need to practice drawing with just ink. In the meantime comments are always welcome.

Journal Pages, Figure Dwg and a WIP

Starting out today's post with a couple pages out of my Nature Journal. The top one is from my walk at Daniel Webster made last Friday afternoon, I consider it before Hurricane Irene. The page below I made yesterday prior to going to my drawing session, so it is after. The image above (drawn from a photo when I got home) is of an Eastern Phoebe who somehow flew into the entrance building at Daniel Webster and couldn't seem to find it's way out. Poor thing, I did finally chase it in the right direction, but it did fly into windows a couple of times before it managed to go. I hope it didn't injure itself.

The other excitement for the day was to see a large white Egret/crane at the pond. It was too far away for me to photograph, but I was able to view it well enough through my field glasses to say it was either the white morph of a Great Blue Heron, or a Great Egret, I couldn't see the legs to really identify it. There was also a Hawk who stopped by, and I spent time watching another Eastern Phoebe swooping down toward the pond surface to catch bugs and its dinner. They are very fun to watch. They perch on the dead trees between flights looking for bugs, when they see one off they go only to return to their perch to eat.

Yesterday I did notice some wind damage at the sanctuary, at least one downed tree, and some broken branches. The bird in the drawing above is a Northern Mockingbird, there was quite a small flock of them, I think I counted at least 5 at one point, perhaps this years fledglings. There were also a fairly large number of Canada geese, at least 3 flocks though they tended to merge when they were in the fields feeding so there may have been more. The parking lot also showed evidence of visiting geese.

Some other visitors came into a Hide while I was there and mentioned that they had just seen an Osprey, I didn't see it, but later another couple and I were watching a very large bird in the top of a distant tree. It was too far for us to ID, but now I wonder if it was the Osprey, it was certainly one of the raptors.

Below is a scan of my current work in progress:

I am not entirely sure where this is going, or even what it is, but it is fun to work on. I am working on another piece of my grey Stonehendge paper with ink and colored pencils.

Below is my figure drawing from last night:

I am not totally thrilled with it. Drawing foreshorten legs is not easy, well the actual drawing isn't that hard, but giving the viewer the visual cues they need so that they "see" it as foreshorten is not so easily done.

Irene has left many areas without power, I noticed a lot of non-working stop lights yesterday on my drive over to Daniel Webster. Scott said that the power only came back on in the studio around 4:00 p.m. but that he had brought candles so if it hadn't come on we would have been working by candle light. I have to admit that would have been interesting, though tricky for the painters as it is hard to see color in low light. The color receptors in the eye shut down if there isn't enough light.

I was lucky where I live and didn't loose power except for a few flickers, but I noticed last night as I was driving home that there were still some major sections that were without light. Irene dropped a fair amount of rain on us with lots of wind, still she could have caused even more damage then she did so I am thankful it wasn't a stronger storm.

One last photograph, made last Friday at Daniel Webster:

Not the best photo, I fear it is just slightly out of focus. Problem is this is my best photo out of the series I made of this Short Tailed Swallowtail. Pretty isn't it, so I hope you will forgive me for posting it.

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