Working on Projects

Well she still isn't finished but I have made progress on her. First I put her aside to finish the pen and ink work, then I got distracted working on Nature Journal pages and trying to figure out varieties of oak trees by looking at leaves and acorns. I promise I will get her done, as I think she is coming along rather nicely. I find the patterns on the feathers beautiful though I admit a pia to draw which is why she is taking so long.

Above is one of those Nature Journal pages that I have been spending so much time on. I actually used a bit of colored pencil on these pages which feature two types of goldenrod's that I have been seeing on my walks. There are a lot more varieties of goldenrod than just the 2 I was featuring here but these two were mainly what I was seeing at Daniel Webster on my walk. One is more suited to the shade of the red maple groves and the other was growing along the sunny edges of fields, and was more of a small bush than one slender stalk with flowers.

The other image is my standard one of the tree stump in the panne. This week the water level hadn't changed much from what it was the previous week. Meaning it was a bit higher than the low point I had seen earlier in the summer.

All drawings are from my September 10th visit to Daniel Webster in Marshfield, MA.

Above is my figure drawing from Monday nights session in the Studio. I am much happier with my drawing this week. It might be the pose or it might be the lighting. I found the strong light from directly above the model to be something I didn't particularly enjoyed drawing. I said so at the start of this weeks session and the several of my fellow artists took me to task. They said they enjoyed the changes and that the same light week after week gets old. Hmm, I understand what they are saying, I don't want to draw the same pose from week to week, but I think my objection to the lighting is still valid.

Fairly close up photograph of one of the Goldenrod's I have been seeing in the sanctuaries I visit. They are pretty yellow flowers and the bees love them. They don't seem too attractive to butterflies, unless they are the only blooms around. I expect the flowers don't have much in the way of nectar, so the pay off for visiting is lower. The bees also want the pollen so find the flowers more attractive. As an aside the pollen that most people are allergic to this time of year is ragweed, goldenrod pollen is too heavy to float in the air.

Photograph of a landing seagull, made at my local Brockton park. This is probably a first year gull as it has a lot of brown on its head and body. Mature Herring gulls are white with some black and grey, and just a little  brown around the neck in winter.

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

Fall Has Arrived

Here north of the equator fall has officially arrived with the Autumnal Equinox yesterday. So today is officially the first day of fall. From now until December not only will the dark of night be longer than the period of daylight, but it will be getting longer each night. I fear it will feel like a long six months before the Spring Equinox arrives.

Above is the finished pen and ink drawing of the Cape Cod Canal and the Sagamore Bridge. I posted an in-process image of this last week, and am happy to say it is now done. Not sure how I feel about it. I think it works, but might have been a better drawing if I had placed a boat in the canal to add some interest, or maybe a seagull flying above the canal. Some times I focus too much on the overall subject and not enough on the details. At the time I felt there were enough challenges to rendering this subject and didn't even think about it lacking a focal point other than the bridge.

I used an old fashioned dip pen for this piece. Now that I have finished it I need to find a new subject to use for this type of ink work. Working with the dip pen for this drawing I have rediscovered how much I enjoy using it.

Still catching up with my nature journal, though I am beginning to see the daylight on this one.

I have two pages to share again today. The image above is from a visit to Daniel Webster, MA Audubon Sanctuary in Marshfield, MA on September 3, 2012. Saw quite a few birds, from hawks to various ducks, mallards, blue wing teal, wood ducks, but wasn't able to make any good photographs of them. So my images in the journal are fairly mundane. Top image is my usual tree stump, water level in the Panne was down a bit from the previous week. The other image is of a log bench on one of the boardwalks. It has a fern growing out of the side which has so far survived our dry summer. I wouldn't say it is thriving, but it is alive.

Later that week I made a visit to Borderland State Park over in Easton. I am happy to say I found and picked up quite a few acorns. After the almost total lack of acorns last year this year, while not a banner year, is at least proving to have a noticeable crop.

The journal page for that visit documents several of the ones I found. I hadn't realized prior to my acorn hunting that there was one more common variety of oak that I should have added to my list. I knew about White Oaks, Black Oaks, Scarlet Oaks, Northern Red Oaks, but the Pin Oak was a new one for me. On this visit I didn't identify any particular leaves with the acorn so will have to keep my eyes open when I visit other sanctuaries.

My other image is of a clump of mushrooms growing by the side of the path. It looked to me that they were growing out of some horse droppings. There are a quite a few horseback riders who ride the main paths at Borderland. It must be a lovely way to spend a few hours as the park has some lovely views.

The figure drawing above I actually drew last Monday, meaning that I am now caught up with my figure images. Not totally pleased with this image, seems I am alternating on weeks, though this isn't quite a bad as the drawing from a couple of weeks ago.

Scott was playing with lighting. This week the light was directly over the model. My issue this week was even slight position changes would cause major changes in how the shadows fell. making it hard to get a good drawing of her face. I don't love the pose either. Maybe if I had moved to a slightly different position. I would have enjoyed it a bit more and created a more successful drawing. Have to think about that during my next session.

The above photograph is from Borderland State Park, and shows one of the various bridges that are located in the park. Most of them are strictly for walkers. You can see that some of the trees are just starting to change colors. I am hoping that we get a hard frost soon so that we have better color this fall than we did last year. Weather last fall was just too warm, in a way it was nice but the warm weather made for an odd winter.

The above photo shows some blooming fall asters. These are small white asters that bloom along the edges of paths and roadsides.

One down more to go

One down, meaning I have finished one of the 3 drawings I was working on last week. Above is the finished drawing of the Green Heron standing on a rock at the south end of the Panne at Daniel Webster. The background doesn't look like water because it was covered with duck weed at the time and in the photo actually looks green not blue or grey.

Not sure how the heron could see anything to eat through the duck weed but it manage to catch some thing so the problem is probably my perspective. They are such hansom birds, and I am quite pleased with how this drawing came out.

I have two Nature Journal spreads today, as I am catching up with my drawings in the journal and need to get them posted. Both pages are from August and both were for visits to Daniel Webster.

The above page is for a visit I made on August 20th. Saw a frog in the pond, so tried to draw it for the top image, not totally satisfied with it, but it will have to do. The plant on the lower left is Motherwort, it was in bloom out at Fox Hill, and I find it an interesting plant to look at. The plant is a member of the mint family and was brought over from Europe thought it actually originated in Asia. The plant is another of those that were used by early settlers for medicinal purposes. The final drawing (lower right) is the tree stump with attendant turtle. I have to say the south end of the Panne doesn't have as many turtles hanging out now as there were in the spring, not sure why, I usually see more turtles at the northern end of Panne.

The images above were for a visit on August 27th, thus wrapping up my August visits. Top image is of a Northern Mocking bird sitting on a bench that is placed on the path heading toward the South Blind. The bench has a view of the natural pond, and I suppose would be a nice place to sit, if the mosquitoes aren't too bad and the weather nice. Bottom image is again the tree stump in the Panne, again with just one turtle hauled out.

Another figure drawing:

The above figure drawing was made a week ago Monday, so I am almost caught up with posting these. I rather like how this one came out. The face sort of looks like the model and I like the way the legs/feet are rendered. She had a pillow behind her back so was really supported in the chair.

Two photographs today, the one above was made in August when I was visiting the Long Pasture Sanctuary on Cape Cod. Image is of goldenrod blooming in a field with trees behind.

This little guy is a bit out of sequence as I actually made this photograph on Monday at Daniel Webster it is of a Bush Katydid, though the exact species is a bit up for debate, it is either a Split tailed Bush Katydid, or a Treetop Bush Katydid. Without the actual insect it is a bit hard to tell for sure. Since I don't capture the insects I find I will just have to wonder. Such a lovely green (probably female) bug, not so little actually, about 2 inches long sitting on a milk weed leaf.

I have found a wonderful site for ID'ing insects, BugGuide.Net  OK, I know insects aren't everyone's thing, but I find some of them beautiful and many fascinating. I admit mostly when they are outside and not on me, but under those conditions they can really draw my attention.

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