Squirrel, clover, and tress

After I finished the watercolor in my last update I ended up taking a bit of a break, but finally got motivated yesterday so am doing an update today.

When I visit the Library, if the weather is nice, I tend to extend my trip to a small park that is behind the library. There is a stream that flows through the park with tables and benches for sitting. The other day on my walk back from the park I startled a squirrel that had been foraging in the front area of an older building. The squirrel took off around the corner I got my camera ready and went after it.

Poor thing, I have to think that it is, while full grown, still a young squirrel.  It did a lot of scrambling in its efforts to get away from me, a couple of times it seemed like it couldn't quite make up its mind which way it wanted to go.  The wall of the building being right there it decided to scramble up the wall, fell off, ran a ways beside the wall and then started climbing again. Once it got to a certain height on the wall  it paused to look at me. I was able to get a couple of photographs and used one as reference to make the above drawing.

This is just a quick graphite sketch, which I did as a study while considering whether I should make a more polished drawing of this subject. I rather like the pose of the squirrel and the way it is looking over its' shoulder at me. I think this will be a go, but I really have to finish at least one of the other two drawings I currently have in the works before I start with the squirrel.

More flowers, have you figured you yet that I love drawing flowers? I find them totally fascinating, the way this petal grows out of that part etc.

Today's flower is the lowly red clover. Brought by Europeans to American it can now be found in waste fields and along roadsides in many areas. I drew the leaves separately to show the light colored chevrons that mark each leaf. Done first with pencil, inked with one of my technical pens and colored pencil added.

I am telling myself that I need to start doing more Plein Air drawing if not painting. I really should be painting but am not quite ready for that step. So the other day I took the time to draw these trees and the bicycle. Not terribly good as I really didn't spend all that long on it. Not sure I captured the look of a tree with leaves. Ah well as an initial venture it isn't too bad.

The clematis are starting to bloom. The same day I made the plein air drawing above I photographed these blooming clematis. The yard where this plant is growing also has a purple clematis but it wasn't yet it bloom. Have to head back in that direction on one of my walks to see if I can get some photographs of it.

The problem with this time of year is that I make more photographs than I want to post to the blog. I try to pick ones that I think are not only the best but ones that my readers will enjoy seeing. I would love to hear from folks about what they think of them.

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

Clematis Finished

The clematis colored pencil drawing is done. Well, as done as I am going to make it. I am sure I could have done more fussing with it and even improved on what I did. But as far as I was concerned it was time for it to be done. I don't think I am cut out to do photo-realistic drawings. The above is about as close as I want to come I think. Not bad but I have seen much better works shown in the Colored Pencil Forum at WetCanvas.

Even at the size I was working (drawing area 4.5 inches square) this drawing took hours to finish, and I wasn't even attempting a realistic background. In the end I did use a black colored pencil to help darken some areas and to add an edge to the petals.  It like most of my recent drawings/paintings was done on Hot Press Watercolor paper, the 140lb weight.

I have started another pen and ink work that I will hopefully have done by the next blog posting. In the meantime we finally had a sunny day and I took advantage of it to drive out to Stony Brook, one of the MA Audubon sites. Below are a couple of photographs I made that day. More photographs are on my Facebook Fan page in the Summer Photograph album, and I will probably be adding them to my flickr albums in the next few days.

I have no clue what the insect above is. It flies and sort of looks like a butterfly, but the wings were a bit strange, I don't think it shows in the photograph but it was like it had double wings. One set is down with the round lobes and the 2nd set is more vertical, you can sort of see an edge along the left side of the body. And note how fuzzy the body looks. If anyone knows what it is please leave me a comment. It wasn't very big, maybe an inch across.

The photograph above is of what probably was the mill pond at Stony Brook back in the day. This photo is about as close as I am going to get to making a photograph of a Great Blue Heron without a telephoto lens. That fuzzy gray area in the center left is a Great Blue flying across the pond. When I approached one edge of the pond he took flight and I attempted the photograph. Someday maybe I will be able to afford a lens, then I will actually be able to photograph birds, in the meantime small blurry images are where I am at. Still it was fun to see him/it, I don't know if they have a nest here or just look for food but they can often be sighted at the edges of one of the ponds.

Enough for today. Comments and questions are always welcome, and I would really love to know what that insect is.

Figure Drawing, June 14

Above is last nights figure drawing. I seem to be working in a slightly looser style, not as finished or polished as what I was doing last fall even. I am not saying this is good or bad, just making a comment. The model was sitting upright on a chair last not, not a typical pose for these sessions, and though there were strategically placed pillows I think the model was feeling some pain by the end of the session. Still she did very well for her first time posing holding pose between the breaks extremely well. There was a bit of shifting, esp. with the arm that was resting on the chair back (there was a pillow underneath some draped fabric)

For the most part I think I am pleased with it, but I will have to let it set a few weeks before I really know for sure.

We didn't have a large turn out for this session, some of our usual attendees took part in a special class over at the North River Arts Society (Marshfield Hills, MA) with a visiting instructor. Still it was a good evening.

The image above is a work in progress. It is a colored pencil drawing of a clematis bloom. I think I have the background the way I want it. and now need to finish the center, and the petals. The petals are almost there, just need to add a bit more blue to the edges and then the pink stripes down the middle. I think I will need to do some test drawings to find the right pencil color/colors to give me the proper pink.

The dark green areas in the background have been done using a under layer of red (Geranium Lake) with an over layer of green. A reminder from my Color and Design II class that to darken a color add it's complement. The rule was for paint, but it also works with colored pencils. The ideal is to avoid the use of black in a painting as it is a dead color. Using the complement creates a dark value that has more life.

Below is the photograph I am using as reference for the above drawing.

I made this photograph a couple of weeks ago of a beautiful clematis blooming in a neighbors front yard. The other side of the lamp post has a lovely purple clematis blooming, but I thought this pink and white flower more of a challenge. Notice that I am brave enough to only tackle the one flower. I will think about doing another version if the first comes out well.

Since I have been a member of the Wetcanvas site, I have been reading the colored pencil forum, looking at others works and picking up some tips on how to use colored pencils. One piece of information that I picked up and want to pass on to my readers is the Colored Pencil Studio web site. There you will find all sorts of information about colored pencils and watercolor pencils. Evaluations on the best pencils on the market, what kinds of papers to use with your pencils and tips on how to draw with colored pencils. I consider it a great find.

I do have one final comment for today. For years I have tried to be as realistic with my work as I could possibly be. I am slowly discovering that I while I may admire works that are photographic realistic, I don't think of them as works of art. I think it is because there is nothing of the artist in such drawings. I find I want to see the artists hand in the artwork. If this makes the works less then perfect so be it. Just my thoughts for the day. Per usual comments and questions are always welcome.