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December 2007
This is a watercolor sketch I did from a photo of a sparrow. I used my small watercolor travel set for practice and did it while watching tv with my son. Trying to get artwork done at any time is a challenge so I practice when I can!
Thursday, 1-10-08 Cold morning but not too bad! I visited Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve in Depew, NY. It’s an almost 300 acre preserve with forests, wetlands and ponds surrounded by suburban developments. What a surprise it is to find a place like this when you can walk in and feel like your far outside the city (Buffalo) limits but you’re not! Today was a camera exploring day, I didn’t pull out the sketchbook. I saw turkeys, white tailed deer, a beaver (must be the warm winter) chickadees, downey woodpeckers, mallards and Canada geese. I captured so many wonderful pictures of leaves, dead ferns, lichens, mosses and fungi…but…alas the computer Gods were against me when I downloaded them! I lost almost all!!! Heavy Sigh…. But I shall be returning there often as I will be teaching my Nature Sketching class there this spring and summer. I will be planning several different days and time options to accomodate as many as I can. I might also offer a ‘fairy house + fairy making’ class! Directions to Reinstein Woods: http://www.dec.ny.gov/education/1975.html and here’s another link about Reinstein Woods: http://www.dec.ny.gov/education/1965.html Yesterday I had fun playing around with my watercolors, “can we say Avoidance Behavior?!” haha…well I should have been working on a painting but I wanted to test out some colors and tried an experiment with my field kit.  It might seem silly, but I think I can write a book for a hundred and one uses for ‘sticky tack’ or ‘blue tack’! I wanted to add more colors to my field kit but there are no more places, so I made some! Where the brush should go, I put three little blobs of sticky tack and smooshed them down. I then put just a bit of wet paint into the divided areas and let it dry. Then the little removable water pan (I mean LITTLE!) I’ve been using for black paint, so I added a little wall to that and added Naples yellow, I thought it would be good for grasses, people etc. I will let you know if it works, the stuff is amazing, really!  This is a page from a little sketchbook where I tested the colors out. I was comparing reds as you can see, which ones were similar so I didn’t have to order new paints. (it’s not cheap you know!) The colors at the bottom are tube colors I put into a plastic travel palette, (see it at the bottom of the photo of my ‘mess’) they’re like a repeat of the colors in my large studio palette. I want to see if they’ll stay put or will they flake off all over the place? The drawing of the beetle I did from a field guide. I always try to grab something to draw when I know I’ll be sitting, wasting time in a waiting room. I have a vinyl ‘bible’ cover that I picked up at Barnes and Noble that fits a 6″x8″ sketchbook and across from it a field guide or other book. I’ll post pictures of that sometime, it makes a great little travel kit when outfitted with my ‘travel art supplies’.
 "Field Sketch" This is a sketch in oil crayons I did while looking out my studio window in December.I have made up a small kit of easy to carry art supplies and am giving the oil crayons a go. It’s been years since I’ve used them but am looking for transportable color. I always liked using them as you can smear them like oil paint, thought it’s a bit harder to do! But they won’t smudge all over in a sketch book like soft pastels can. They are a bit hard to get detail with if your sketching with them, but you can if you take your time and sharpen the end with a blade.
Anyhow….to keep my small kit small…I broke the oil crayons in half, half for my kit, half in a baggie to keep in studio. This way I can try out colors, see what works, what doesn’t. |
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