More Sketches, Titmouse and Stuff

 The reference for the Tufted Titmouse above was another of my more recent bird photographs. I suppose I should have darkened the background a bit more, but the reference isn't that high contrast and I wanted to keep the same soft feeling for this drawing. Done with 2H, HB and B grade pencils it wouldn't have been easy to go a lot darker in any case. Just trying to get my drawing chops back up to par. Not totally displeased with this, it does look like a Titmouse.

 I know the circles are seriously out of shape, and the "leaf" motifs aren't all the same size, nor are the center segments. The reason is that I did this drawing entirely by hand, usually when I am doing circles I pull out my campuses and use them (it can bother me if circles are too wonky) but I was just exploring designs so decided not to do that. After I finished the pencil drawing I inked the whole thing using a dip pen and one of my new crow quill nibs with India Ink. The paper in the sketchbook I was using seemed to spread the ink a bit so the lines aren't as fine as they should be. After I finished inking (and let it dry overnight) I erased out the pencil lines.

Design is based on some architectural motifs that I photographed on Chicago buildings over Christmas. I am working on another piece the same shape and wanted to play a bit with designs, and how to shade the background for the outer ring. Not sure how I feel about this, it seems to cry out for color, but I also like the black and white version.

 Managed only one page this week for the WetCanvas Scavenger Hunt. Part of my excuse is that a lot of the prompts called for outside (meaning outdoors) images and our weather here in MA just hasn't been sitting outside weather (too cold, too wet, rain and snow). Hopefully I will do better next week. Done in the sketchbook I seemed to have dedicated to this with a .1 Copic Multiliner pen. Again these were drawn directly in ink, no pencil underdrawings. The screwdriver isn't too bad, considering.

From a walk last week in one of the Blue Hills Reservation sections this is a photo of lichen covered boulders, left by the glaciers at the top of a hill that goes down to Ponkapoag Pond. Note the smaller rock balanced above the gap between two others. MA not only has a foundation of granite but it also has a great many rocks and boulders left loose on the surface by retreating glaciers. That is one reason why we have so many stone walls, they had to get the rocks out of the fields to plow them, so why not build something. Oddly enough early settlers mostly didn't use stone for their houses, they preferred wood or brick for those.

A photograph from Friday of snow left by Thursday's all day snow storm, a small local park. I think we only got about 8 inches but other areas of the state got several inches more. Yesterday (Saturday) we had another couple of inches of snow then clouds for the rest of the day. Since there was no sun I didn't take the camera out. Today we again have clouds only today we are getting some rain which is expected to turn to snow overnight then we are scheduled for another storm tomorrow. ACK one winters quota of snow storms in about 5 days. It is more fun when they are spread out over several weeks.

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

Just sketches, but am drawing

All of my postings today are just sketches, which is about all I have been doing the past couple of weeks, but I consider sketches a step up from doing no art at all, so thought I would post them just so I keep in the habit of updating the blog and kept sketching, hopefully I will also get back to more finished/polished drawings at some point. 

My new camera is allowing me to make better bird reference photographs. Above is a quick sketch done with a Copic Multiliner .1 pen in a small sketchbook. The bird is a song sparrow, one of our native North American sparrows. Not a terribly good drawing, but not totally off either considering I didn't do a preliminary pencil drawing and my drawing skills are seriously rusty. From a personal reference photograph.

These next three images are sketches done in a 8.5 x 11 inch Canson Sketchbook. Again I used the .1 Copic Multiliner pen for them and did no preliminary pencil sketches.

The subjects come from lists posted in the Artwork From Life, WetCanvas forum. The Scavenger lists are weekly lists of subjects to be drawn from life.  I have labeled each page with the list number used and then labeled the item drawn.

I have rediscovered that I still have the tendency to draw what should be perpendicular lines at an angle on a page. ACK. Note that the peanut butter jars above, and the black mug and ink bottle in the previous drawings are slanted to the right. I keep forgetting that I do this and really need to check my orientation before I put pen to paper. Once the ink is down it is too late. I am not sure why I do this, maybe because I am right handed? But it drives me crazy after the fact. What really frustrates me is that I don't even notice the slant while I am making the drawing, only once it is done do I see the error.

Not really the best quality photo, these winter days even in full sun don't let me use a shutter speed that would give me a clearer image, but it is much better than I could have gotten with the old Rebel. A Great Blue Heron at Daniel Websters, MA Audubon sanctuary in Marshfield, MA. I didn't think these birds stuck around over winter, but I have seen Great Blues at Daniel Webster on both of my latest visits this winter. And others in my Facebook Birding Group have also photographed Great Blues so I guess they can and do stick around. This one was walking away from me along the river until it realized I was there and took off. I love the shadows in this image.

While our days have mostly been above freezing (just) the nights get into the 20's or lower so many lakes/ponds in the area have some ice on them. The water has gotten cold enough that the ice doesn't quite all melt during the warmer days and then it refreezes at night. This photo shows Lake Cleveland in Ames Nowell State Park with some frozen areas covered with a light snow fall. I think it makes a pretty picture.

That is it for today. Comments per usual are welcome though I am having trouble replying to them. Over the years Blogger has made changes to its comments section, and I haven't quite got a handle on how they work. But I really do read and appreciate all comments.

Finishing Off Old Starts

 Most of what I am posting today was started last year. The above is the inked final of a piece I started a while ago in pencil but decided I wanted to ink it instead of leaving it as a graphite work. Problem was I didn't have any nibs that made a fine enough line and for this one I really wanted to use a dip pen with India Ink. So for Christmas I asked Santa to bring me some Hunts Crow Quill nibs, which Santa was kind enough to do. In anticipation of the gift I had brought the pencil version of this with me to my Sisters over Christmas and then did the inking there after Christmas Day.

This is done on Stonehenge toned paper, though the color isn't really showing up in the scan. Size of paper is 7 x 7 inches though I think what is in the scan is more like 6 x 6 inches. I don't have a name for it so if anyone has suggestions I would love to hear them. Just goes to show you can stipple with a dip pen, if you are careful.

 Again this was started last summer when I was first experimenting with using color washed cold press watercolor paper as the background for my ink drawings. The flowers here are Foxglove, both the larger flowers and the whole plants in the background. All are based on some personal photographs.

I used a dip pen with acrylic Sepia ink for this one, the nib is a Japanese Manga nib, so it gives a relatively fine line, not as fine as the Hunts Crow Quill but fine. I am rather pleased with how this came out, even if it did take way to long to finish. The good thing about art is that usually it will wait.

Someone asked about the technique, it is just semi short parallel lines made so they are drawn close together to create the tonal value I am looking for, not close together for lighter areas, and basically overlapping for the darker. I did do a pencil sketch, at least outlines prior to inking.

Now this piece is new. I did the background watercolor wash on a long strip of cold press watercolor paper and cut it in two to make two bookmarks. The design is based on some of the architectural features I photographed on buildings in Chicago over my Christmas visit. I used a dip pen with the Manga nib to ink this with black India Ink. I think it is kind of fun and am thinking about using more of my reference photographs for additional works. It isn't quite finished I need to give it a few coats of Acrylic Medium to waterproof and stiffen it, but I wanted to wait until the ink was thoroughly dry prior to bushing the Medium on over the ink. The size is 6 inches by 2 inches.

Two photographs from a recent visit to Daniel Webster, MA Audubon site in Marshfield, MA. The above shows a mallard duck taking off from the Green River. They were feeding on the river when I walked by and started them.

The above photo was made in the Bird feeder area at Daniel Webster, both Mr. & Mrs Cardinal. The male is top right and the duller female is at the 2nd feeder lower left. Love the new camera that lets me make these bird photos without them being totally blurry.

That is it for today, yeah, I have actually managed a 2nd post this month. Not sure I will get back to weekly updates but hopefully I will be able to keep up the bi-weekly ones. Per usual comments are welcome.