A couple of birds, a figure and a Nature Journal

I have been in the mood to draw birds lately. So above is a small sketch of a female mallard. She is one of the birds in the photograph in my last post. She had the look of a disinterested observer to the 2 males tussling, but I am not so sure. Actually I was really attracted to the patterns on her feathers. The females may not have the brilliant color of the males but I think in their own way they are just as beautiful.

For my next subject I used a photograph I made of one of the Red Tail Hawks on exhibit at the Trailside Museum. I have a feeling she injured her other foot which is why only one is visible on her perch. I think this is a female since she was larger than the other bird in the cage. Not sure I did her justice, but not too bad either.

Below is my Nature Journal spread from a visit to Borderland State Park last week.

More dog walkers and dogs this for this entry. I should really bring a checklist of breeds when I walk at Borderland, I see so many different varieties of dogs with their owners. The smaller dog to the right was I believe a miniature collie, and the woman was walking a golden retriever. The challenge with these drawings is to get the woods to have the right feeling and look. And believe me it is a challenge.

The sketch on the bottom of the page is of the needles of an Eastern Red Cedar. Their "leaves" are finer than the Northern White Cedar, and they have what look like berries instead of miniature pine cones. The bark/trunk is also very distinctive. At some point I will start drawing tree trunks to illustrate the look of various barks. Probably not until spring when I will have leaves to help identify the trees.

Last nights figure drawing. I have mixed feelings abut this one. It is OK but I wish I had spent more time on the face and head. Ah well there is always next week.

We did have a good crowd for the session which was good and bad. The good was more people the bad is that 2 were young women who smoke. Can I say here I hate the smell of cigarette smoke and the older I get the more I hate it. UGH, I have no clue why young people start smoking now a days, how they can afford it is a complete mystery to me.

The above is a photograph from my walk at Borderland. This is the largest spillway in the park and as you can see there is plenty of water flowing over it. While we haven't had a lot of snow this winter we have been having rain so the lakes are full.

That is it for today. Next time I will share images that I am working on as the center for the border I finished a few weeks ago. In the meantime comments are always welcome.

A Doodle, EDM 89, a Nature Journal Spread

I have been doing a lot of doodling lately not being able to settle on a subject for a major work. A lot of my play has been with a brown ink pen, but those doodles really aren't ready for prime time, or my blog so instead you get another flower. This one has a kind of bee flying around it. Done in pencil then I added color again with the Pitt pens. I have to admit I am feeling the lack of selection in my Pitt pen colors. I know they come in more colors, looks like I need to invest in a few more. They don't really blend on the paper, but it is still fun to mix them up a bit.

My other go to when I can't seem to settle on a large project is the EDM list. Today's drawing is for EDM #89 - Draw a Button or Buttons. I have a small stash of buttons and selected 3 of them for this drawing. I admit that I was selective, wanting different shapes and sizes but nothing too complex.

Next another spread from my Nature Journal.

Wednesday it was nice enough for me to venture out. I had another task I needed to accomplish so I didn't want to go too far. When I want someplace fairly easy to get to I tend to head toward the Blue Hill Reservation and in this case the Trailside Museum.

Since it was a nice day all of the animals seemed to be out and about in their cages/pens. The otter was swimming, the Great Horned Owl was actually visible, the two Red Tail Hawks were both in the center of their cage etc. There was even a small flock of mallard ducks at the pond.

The museum has a Gum Ball machine filled with duck food that visitors can purchase for the ducks. I fed them about a handful then wandered off to make photos in other areas. When I came back I found these two males in a tussle. Not sure if it was over the females or food. Either way I don't usually see mallards being so aggressive toward each other, so that became my subject for the Journal.

Below is my source photo for the drawing and another of a male mallard.

As you can see they were really going at it. But isn't the male coloring gorgeous. All the ducks seem dressed in their best, even the patterns on the female feathers are lovely. I did see another pair of mallards courting and mating on the pond so this fight may have been over a female, with 2 other males watching from the sidelines.

The above photo shows a couple of males. Look at the tail feathers on the one in the center, prior to Wednesday I didn't realize that those black feathers actually curl up, I just thought the black and white pattern I saw from a distance was multicolored tail feathers. In reality the upper tail feathers are black and the lower side feathers are white and it is perspective that can make them look somewhat like a checkerboard.

Photos were both made with the new lens. Hopefully I am getting a handle on how to use it.

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

A mixture of images

A couple of sketches to start today's update. Above is another Every Day Matters drawing. This one is for number 218: Draw a Knife. It shows one of my heavy kitchen knives that I purchased way back when I set up housekeeping for myself in my early 20's. I splurged a bit and purchased good knives. Obviously a good investment as I still have them and use them, though I admit that I haven't used this one all that much.

The sketchbook challenge for January is Doodles and oddly enough I have had a hard time with it. Finally I managed the above drawing of some tulips in a vase. Color was done with my Pitt pens. Not sure this is really a doodle but it will have to do. I certainly didn't spend a lot of time on it.

Below is my figure drawing from last night:

I know it looks blue, that is because I made the photograph outside in the shade and when I lighten the image in Photoshop the shadow turned blue. I tried to adjust it a bit and ended up with this. Oh well you can  see the original drawing and since I am not working in color I decided to not sweat the color shift.

The drawing turned out better than I expected it would at the one hour point. We tend to take breaks about every hour so the model can get out of pose and recover a bit before resuming. Gives us artists a chance to take a break and evaluate the work in progress so necessary corrections can be made. Not going to tell you what all I corrected but the end result is something I am fairly happy with.

Below is my Journal page from yesterday's visit to Daniel Webster:

We had snow here last week and over the weekend. our first snow falls for the new year. Not all that much actually fell about 4 or 5 inches, maybe a total of 6 inches in some areas around me. The paths at Daniel Webster were mostly still covered in snow and I slipped and slid my way through the sanctuary yesterday afternoon. All the sliding was because it really warmed up yesterday - into the 40's and the snow was melting underfoot.

The drawings in the journal are prints I saw in the snow. The top prints are a Canada Goose. And yes they really do have a pigeon toed walk. The middle is probably a deer and the bottom I am not sure of, I think either a fox or a raccoon. It was too large and not quite the right shape to be a squirrel or chipmunk.

Next a couple of snow photos to share.

The image above is actually from Borderland State Park in Easton and made last Friday. I went out to the park to walk and make some photos, leaving the Journal at home. I knew it was a bit too cold for me to want to make notes. Just as well, walking took most of my energy and attention, any extra I had I used making a few photographs. The image above shows the shadows of tree trunks across the snow marked by a passing deer. The other marks in the snow were caused by snow falling out of the trees.

Above is a photo I made yesterday at Daniel Webster. It shows seed pods against the snow at the edge of the man made pond. I believe these are the seed pods for the mallows that were blooming last fall.

That is it for today. Per usual comments are welcome.