Two Birds and a Pear

I finished reading the book on Painting techniques last week and returned it to the Library. I don't really have a lot to say about it. It is not the type of book that can be summarized easily. It would probably make a good reference book if I were the kind of person who went in for that sort of thing. The book is full of tips about not only painting techniques but also about design and which elements of design can/should be considered when creating various types of paintings (landscapes, portraits, etc.) so it mostly held my interest. The one universal that comes across is if you want to learn how to do something you have to just do it, failure is part of game.

With that in mind I spent some time yesterday morning painting this pear in watercolor. It was a Bartlett that had just ripened. After painting it I cut it up and ate it as part of my lunch so it is no longer available as a reference. We had a rainy day here yesterday so I had the lights on causing the poor pear to be illuminated by several different light sources, hence the multiple shadows. Actually they work to provide a background since I didn't bother painting anything else. I am relatively pleased with how this came out, The problem being that I am not really sure how I get the results I am getting.

I start out with a light color and keep adding washes until I end up with something that I think works. I am sure it isn't quite the approved way to go about making a watercolor, but so far it is working for me.

I was checking out a different pen nib the other day to use for the Nature Journal drawings. The pen nib I was using wasn't quite as fine as I prefer them to be so I was looking at a couple of others to use instead.

To really check out a nib I have to draw something so did this quick drawing of a Seagull. The reference photograph I used was made last winter and eventually I will probably draw this young bird using graphite. Still for just using pen and ink I think the drawing came out fairly well and thought I would show it here.

The Great Horned Owl in the above illustration is from my October 20, 2012 visit to Daniel Webster. It happened to be their annual Farm Day event and they had a couple doing Owl demonstrations. The couple are licensed keepers of wild birds and had brought 6 different owl species to talk about, Screech Owl, Bard Owl, Snowy Owl, and 2 European Owls besides the Great Horned. The Great Horned is our largest american owl and I happened to make a really great photograph of it so it became my image for the day.

This page really should have been done prior to the two I posted in my last update, but it had been quite a while since I had done much work with a dip pen so wanted to have a bit of practice prior to tackling this image. Just as well I think I got better results with the finer nib than I would have gotten with the other one I was using.

I took a bit of license with the image as the bird they were keeping had lost an eye. Loosing an eye is a death sentence for an owl in the wild as without depth perception they can't hunt their prey. Otherwise it was a very hansom bird.

Above is the final image for today. I photographed this the other day, I don't know where the cat came from, though from the look of it I think it is homeless and living wild. I didn't dare get too close for fear it would run off so it isn't the best photo. Still there is something about this image that speaks to me so I thought I would post it.

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

Working on Projects

Well she still isn't finished but I have made progress on her. First I put her aside to finish the pen and ink work, then I got distracted working on Nature Journal pages and trying to figure out varieties of oak trees by looking at leaves and acorns. I promise I will get her done, as I think she is coming along rather nicely. I find the patterns on the feathers beautiful though I admit a pia to draw which is why she is taking so long.

Above is one of those Nature Journal pages that I have been spending so much time on. I actually used a bit of colored pencil on these pages which feature two types of goldenrod's that I have been seeing on my walks. There are a lot more varieties of goldenrod than just the 2 I was featuring here but these two were mainly what I was seeing at Daniel Webster on my walk. One is more suited to the shade of the red maple groves and the other was growing along the sunny edges of fields, and was more of a small bush than one slender stalk with flowers.

The other image is my standard one of the tree stump in the panne. This week the water level hadn't changed much from what it was the previous week. Meaning it was a bit higher than the low point I had seen earlier in the summer.

All drawings are from my September 10th visit to Daniel Webster in Marshfield, MA.

Above is my figure drawing from Monday nights session in the Studio. I am much happier with my drawing this week. It might be the pose or it might be the lighting. I found the strong light from directly above the model to be something I didn't particularly enjoyed drawing. I said so at the start of this weeks session and the several of my fellow artists took me to task. They said they enjoyed the changes and that the same light week after week gets old. Hmm, I understand what they are saying, I don't want to draw the same pose from week to week, but I think my objection to the lighting is still valid.

Fairly close up photograph of one of the Goldenrod's I have been seeing in the sanctuaries I visit. They are pretty yellow flowers and the bees love them. They don't seem too attractive to butterflies, unless they are the only blooms around. I expect the flowers don't have much in the way of nectar, so the pay off for visiting is lower. The bees also want the pollen so find the flowers more attractive. As an aside the pollen that most people are allergic to this time of year is ragweed, goldenrod pollen is too heavy to float in the air.

Photograph of a landing seagull, made at my local Brockton park. This is probably a first year gull as it has a lot of brown on its head and body. Mature Herring gulls are white with some black and grey, and just a little  brown around the neck in winter.

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

Early Valentine, Nature Journal and Figure

I was just fooling around in the sketchbook the other evening, thinking I should do something with hearts since it will soon be valentine's day. Not that I send anyone a valentine, I don't but hearts are fun to play with so... I used pen for the lines and the black and added colored pencil for the red hearts. To add text I scanned the page and used Adobe Illustrator. I should play with this some more, the background is a bit dirty and while I did a little cleanup it wasn't quite enough. Also I am not sure about the font I used, or the size of the text.  But it was fun to play with so that is about all I can ask for sometimes.

Below is a Nature Journal page from a visit to Massasoit State Park in East Taunton, MA.

Top sketch is just some dried seed heads/flowers I found in the Spillway area of the park. I am not even sure what plant they are from, something that flowered in the fall, but other than that I don't know.

I am afraid the bottom image is a bit hard for the viewer to read. It is an open clam shell. I found this sitting on top of pine needles at the tip of a spit of land that extended out into Lake Rico. I have no clue how it got there or actually where it is from. Lake Rico is a fresh water lake, and the ocean is really miles away. I did see some seagulls on the lake while I was there, and there are fresh water clams so, who knows. I suppose it is possible that it was left by people, but the land wasn't near a picnic area, and really while it has been warm for this time of year it still hasn't been picnic weather, besides there was only the one.

I feel that part of the purpose of my Journal is for me to document the oddities I come across in my walks so here is another one to puzzle over.

Above is last nights figure drawing. I am not happy with it, though it didn't turn out to be quite the disaster I thought it was going to be at one point.

The young woman who was our model last night is really lovely, though fairly slender, with almost a boyish figure. I am finding this type of figure very difficult to draw. I think I have her legs too long, but I struggled over her face for so long that I fear I neglected the lower section of the drawing.

Back to my theme of birds. Below find a couple of photos I made at our local Park here in Brockton.

A seagull flying against the sky.  During the winter we get quite a flock of gulls that winter over in the park. People feed the geese and the gulls get their share, mostly the gulls are still fairly young and perfectly happy to be freeloaders.

I made this photo as the sun was starting to set. It shows a flock of geese flying off to a different resting spot for the night.

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