ATC, Figure and WIP Geese

Above is my latest Artist Trading Card. These are some sort of ornamental cherry blossoms from a photograph I made last spring. I took some liberties with this so the flowers are more a gesture than an accurate reproduction of  the real blossoms. Oddly enough I almost like the scan of this card better than I do the original.. Not sure I have the color of the blossoms quite right, that pink/blue/red is tricky to recreate with pigments.

The card has ink outlines for the flower blossoms and was then painted with watercolor, on cold press watercolor paper. I suppose I should stop working so small and see if I can make a watercolor that works on a larger sheet of paper. But I still feel that I am the rankest beginner with watercolor so am hesitant to work much larger. The ATC's are good practice for me.

Above is an update on my Geese drawing. It still isn't finished, but I have made a fair amount of progress. Background has been darkened, bodies of the geese have been darkened and I have done some work on the foreground though there is still a fair amount of work needing to be done. So far so good, at least with pencil I can correct most errors as I go along.

Above is last nights figure drawing. I think I should have spent a bit more time making Photoshop adjustments with this photo. The blue cast is from sunlight, or rather shadow, since the photo was made outside and the paper was in shadow when I made the photo.  The paper is more cream than blue or even white, and I know I can make a better correction in Photoshop if I take the time.

Hmm, I was working this morning on making some lines lighter and I may have made one the lines around her upper leg a bit too light. Ah well as I usually say there is always next week.

My photograph for today I made yesterday at Ames Nowell State Park, two Canada Geese, one stretching its wings. There is no Journal Spread today. I didn't make it over to Daniel Webster for the first time in months if you don't count my misses while I was in Chicago. I did get a short walk at Ames Nowell (it is closer to me) but didn't bother writing a Journal entry. These weeks of late winter don't have much going on for me to document. There is always something at Daniel Webster for me to write about, birds at the feeders, and the amount of water in the woods and pond, but with parks I visit less often it is harder for me to find something to write about.

March is almost here and with it should be some of the earliest signs of spring. In the meantime that is it for today, comments are always appreciated.

EDM 93 & 195 and another ATC

Another Friday and I have some more Everyday Matters drawings to share. Above is #93 - draw an egg carton. Mine was Styrofoam and I am not thrilled with the final image. I know I could have done better. Egg cartons are really complex objects and I didn't spend the amount of time on it that I probably should have. Still it does look like an egg carton so I guess it is OK.

Above is #195 - draw a fork, my silverware is quite simple, I have always prefer it that way so above is my very simple fork which has more edges and planes then I think I realized before I started drawing it, which of course is the point of the exercise.

Above is another ATC, this one is of Bindweed, pretty flowers related to Morning Glory's, or perhaps I should say it the other way around. The bindweed is the wild plant and a bane of gardeners because its runners will spread underground and the plant above ground will choke out other preferred plants. This one I found growing in a wild area with no one to particularly care if it was there or not.

The background on this card is a heavy stipple leaving some lighter areas to suggest the leaves that were surrounding the flowers. Color is colored pencil, my card stock here is Bristol Board which doesn't take water well.

This next image is a work in progress. I finished the ink work on the sparrow on the right last night and though I would show my progress. I started this drawing before Christmas but have been nervous about doing the inking so have left it sitting while I went on to work on other projects. But I want to finish the center of my border piece so decided to use the sparrows as practice.

I am using old fashioned crow quill pen and India ink for this work. It is a very fine nib so I can put in lots of fine lines. So far it is turning out better than I thought it would a day or so ago.

 Finally a photo made Monday at Daniel Webster:

I don't have any Nature Journal pages to share today. While the weather hasn't been that bad I just wasn't able to motivate myself out to another park this week. I know I am getting tired of the bare winter landscape, and finding something to draw for these pages has gotten to be an effort.

Still there is a certain beauty to the winter landscape even without snow. Above is a photo of a red maple grove at Daniel Webster with the raised walkway in frame. You can just glimpse one of the bridges that cross the river which makes an ox bow around these woods. In the summer this area is like being in a cathedral with green glass windows, in the winter without the leaves the light is more direct.

That is it for today, hope everyone has a great weekend. Per usual comments are always welcome.

Think Spring, even if it is only Feb.

Like many I have been anticipating Spring, something I usually do about this time of year when the cold and dark seem to be lasting forever. Though I have to say our mild winter has allowed me to be out and about a lot more than usual so I don't have the cabin fever I might usually have. Still real spring is about 6 weeks away. I know the equinox is about 4 weeks off, but real spring doesn't arrive here in MA until April, usually, it will be interesting to see when it arrives this year.

Anyway, I have been working on more ATC flowers. Above are a couple of daffodils based on some photos I made in previous springs. Yellow is a tricky color to scan so the above isn't totally accurate color wise, but close enough I think. I used a bit of ink line work in this and then used watercolor for the color, done on cold press watercolor paper.

Above is my Nature Journal spread from my visit yesterday to Daniel Webster. The top image is of the tree stump in the man made pond. Yesterday there was actually a turtle hauled out at the near end. Last week this end of the pond where the stump is was frozen, this week there was only a bit of ice at some of the edges. Last week the reeds were frozen in the ice, this week they were floating on the surface. I am not sure that this turtle is being particularly wise emerging so early but only time will tell.

My second image may be a bit hard to read. It is two Canada Geese. One has its neck stretched out toward the other, and was actually hissing at the other Goose. Not sure what was going on here, the two birds had flown onto the pond together with a few other geese, and for some reason this one was threatening the other. The attack (if it was an attack) went on for several minutes and I never saw the other goose reply in kind. From reading Konrad Lorenz many years ago I believe this neck gesturing is a form of aggression with geese. Course he was raising Greylag geese, but I have seen other Canada Geese make a similar gesture, though usually on land when another goose has gotten in its space. Still for all I know it could be courting behavior and not aggression at all, I wasn't really watching long enough to figure it out.

Above is last nights figure drawing. I am only semi satisfied with it. I feel that I should have spent more time on her face as I have some of the shadows too dark and others not dark enough.

Scott has been wanting to change things up a bit these past couple of weeks, so last week our model had a shirt on, this week she was wearing a hat, shoes, fishnet leggings and a short bed jacket, sort of like a bolero jacket. The hat and the jacket were both red, almost making me wish I was painting like many of the other artists.

One last image:

A photograph I made yesterday at Daniel Webster, it is a view of the river with some grasses that grow along the shore line, blue sky, and a stand of winter bare trees.

That is it for today. I need to spend some more time working on my Geese drawing, and also on a pen and ink piece, maybe next update. In the meantime comments are always welcome, and I want to wish a happy Fat Tuesday to all.