Nature Journal and other

Had a great visit at Daniel Webster yesterday. It was certainly a day to see wild life, though it actually was quite windy and not terribly warm. Temp was in the upper 50's but wasn't too bad as long as I was out of the wind.

Top image is the tree stump in the pond. Only eight turtles yesterday, well there were that many when I made my reference photograph, later there were fewer and who knows there might have been more earlier in the day when I wasn't there. I drew the stump not only for the turtles but because the water level in the pond is dropping. We haven't had any rain, or at least not any significant amount of rain. Doesn't bode well for the summer if this weather pattern doesn't change soon.

Bottom image is of a deer I saw on one of the more protected smaller fields, it was busy eating grass and basically ignored me as I snapped multiple images of it. I moved slowly and was actually able to walk past it without startling it enough for it to run off.

Last week I promised to show an update on the stipple border I am working on, so here it is. Making good progress on this. But progress on this means I am not getting much else done. Stipple, while I love the look takes a long time to do, esp. as I want it dark so the light areas will stand out.

I spent Easter Sunday with a friend and her family, and while they chatted I sketched her brother and sister in law. Not terribly good likenesses, but I didn't want to be too obvious about what I was doing, so didn't spend a lot of time on them.

Above is last nights figure drawing. I am mostly pleased with this, though I think I could have gone a bit darker with the darks. This is a slightly different view of a pose from what I normally do, but my view of her pose from my regular position only had one arm in view, and I thought it might make an odd looking drawing so I moved until I could see both arms.

I am sharing two photographs today. The above I made on Easter Sunday and is of weeping cherry blossoms. It is an old tree, in not very good shape, but still come Spring it puts out these lovely pink flowers and is beautiful for a week or so.

My visit to Daniel Webster yesterday included sightings of several raptors, my first sighting was this hawk gliding through the tree tops looking for a snack. This is the only photo that really came out of the several I made. Not sure of the species, but it was a large bird so probably a red tail. Watching it circle through the tree tops was amazing, so smooth and silent.

My second sighting of raptors was of a pair of probably kestrels sitting on the Electrical wires out at Fox Hill. They didn't let me get close enough for a good photo, but I know they were raptors because of how flew and hovered over the fields looking for dinner. I did check out the Osprey nest, and I think I saw the females head but it is so far away I can't be sure. She should be sitting on eggs about now so I probably did see her.

The last sighting was at the bird feeder area where a Cooper Hawk flew past looking for its dinner. All the smaller birds scattered and the Cooper landed in a near by tree letting me get a good look but not a photograph. Fun day, that ended with me getting to play with a really large lens at the man made pond for a couple of photographs of green wing teal. I now have lens lust, but lens of that power are expensive and not in my budget.

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

EDM with a Peak in the Sketchbook

First two images today are a couple of fairly quick drawings that I did for challenges posted by Web groups I belong to. The top one is for the Everyday Matters list. I chose number 250: Draw something you got for free.

This little plastic guy showed up in my office area one day (back when I had a day job) and I could never find out who left it so I adopted it and it has lived with me ever since. Since I didn't pay for it, I did get it for free though it wasn't a gift. For those who might not know, it is one of the toys from the grab machine in Toy Story I, well it is a plastic version of an animated image.

Above is another pen and ink drawing done from one of the monthly challenge photographs in the Pen and Ink forum on WetCanvas. The photograph shows the 2 jugs standing in a tiled corner. I am semi pleased with how it came out, but needless to say I can see a lot wrong with it. Things I would have corrected if I had drawn with pencil first. But the point of this exercise is to make me stop and think before I put pen to paper, and so improve my accuracy the first time out of the box. Not sure that it will but I will keep trying for a bit longer and see where this takes me. Drawn with a Micron 01 pen.

The next two images are pages from my sketchbook. I drew squares on a couple of pages and then proceeded to draw quick sketches in each square. No particular goal in mind other than I wanted to start one of my abstract type drawings and didn't know how to start. So I started here with realism. A couple are sketches of reference photographs, a couple out of imagination. The images become more abstract as I worked down the page. I filled this page and then moved onto the next where I drew the sketch below.

I liked this one and felt it had possibilities esp. with several of the shapes so I pulled out a sheet of Stonehenge and started to lay in some pencil guidelines.

Above is where I have gotten so far with this. It isn't going to look exactly like the thumbnail but that is OK with me, I find the thumbnail a bit busy really. I am doing the ink drawing with the 00X Rapidograph pen.

Not a lot of progress because I am spending most of my time with the stipple border I posted in my last update. That one is coming along nicely and I will post another update next week.

One last image, a photograph I made this week of some Andromeda in bloom in my local city park. This is one bush that is blooming pretty much on schedule, but then Andromeda is the earliest of the flowering shrubs to bloom in my area, the flowers will last for a while, and they are cold hardy so a late frost won't hurt them.

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

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.