Come with me on a sunny, breezy stroll along the Northumberland coast of England, south of Cullernose Point and Dunstanburgh Castle.
South of Cullernose Point, Northumberland
This sketch is done looking northwards while I sat on the grass. I used one water soluble “Inktense” pencil (Ink Black) by Derwent, ; after doing a light sketch I wet it with my waterbrush to create tonal values. It’s like doing an ink wash sketch, great for quick sketches and you can go back over it later with color. The inktense pencils are relatively permanent once dry, so I’m experimenting with using the black then coloring later from photos. These colors of Inktense are very intense, so you need to practice and go lightly with your pressure. You can also achieve very black areas which I like.
Drawing near Cullernose Point
Here I am with my field sketchbook, what a view! (click on the picture to see it as a note card with a quote by Pablo Picasso)
Enjoy the many photographs I took below, they show the things we discovered as we walked and some I used later to do sketches from at home.
Brown Lipped Snails on Cowslip Leaves
It’s funny, once you learn about something you start noticing it more and more, as is the case with snails for me. Now when we walk I see them everywhere!
Brown Lipped Snails
These are Brown Lipped Snails; notice the brown line at the edge of their shell. I just love the striped patterns they have.
Pool with Grey Heron
This is looking down from the coastal path we walked on, there is a Grey Heron in that pool down there.
Grey Heron
Well spotted! He’s a beauty; we watched him fish in the pool as I took pictures from afar.
View of the coastal rocks we explored
Here’s another view of the coast where we walked. You can see two figures walking on the path ahead, that’s where we’ll be going.
Common Limpets and a Sea Slater bug
When we ‘clambered’ down to the shore, (hey it’s an old word but it fits here!), we found lots of Limpets, snails and Periwinkles. It wasn’t until I looked at my pictures on the computer later that I noticed the bug, a “Sea Slater”, how interesting! The Limpets are living creatures that cling very tightly to the rocks, you’ll see a watercolor sketch below of one I did.
Yellow Scales
This is called Yellow Scales, a type of lichen that grows near the coast on rocks. It’s very beautiful along with the whitish lichens and grey rocks.
Southern Marsh Orchid
When we returned to the top of the cliffs, we found these small unusual orchids growing here and there. I was surprised at how tiny they were and may have passed them by if Gary didn’t point them out. As near as I can tell they are Southern Marsh Orchids, if anyone knows better, please let me know!
Me Drawing near Cullernose Point
This photo will show you how tiny they were, the orchid is just in front of my sketchbook. I just lay in the grass and did a tiny light, sketch with a pencil. (click to see this and other photos like this, in my shop)
Shell and Flower studies
When I got home I downloaded my photos and did these studies from the laptop. I used watercolors for these, but using Titanium White this time for the white highlights and ‘wet’ look. I don’t usually use white paint, I rub or scrape off to create lights, but I quite liked using the paint for the glaze look. You can read my list of things we saw while there that day on my page.
Studies of Grey Heron
The little studies at the top of the page show my experiment with “Inktense” and just a black watercolor pencil, using watercolor pencil to color it. I wanted to see how much the blacks would lift or blend, hoping they wouldn’t. As I thought the Inktense didn’t lift as well and that’s exactly what I wanted.
The heron studies are also done from the laptop, just painted without sketching him out first. The little one in the left corner was an experiment of painting solid blue water then lifting color and using white paint to add the heron after. I’m not thrilled with how it came out but you should always experiment!
I hope you enjoyed coming along on this walk by the sea. Get outside and bring a small sketchpad with you, you’ll be surprised at how much you’ll see when you sit and start to draw things around you; a whole new world opens up before your eyes.
Here’s a little video clip of the waves washing over the rocks where we were, enjoy!
NOTE: Many of the photographs in this post have been made into beautiful glossy note cards and gifts and are in my shop (home page link). There are many more besides the links in this post, I hope you have a look and please pass it on to friends!
Many birds were calling today but it was hard to see much on this cold day; I’m sure if I stopped to dig around in the leaves I would have found more life, but we mostly walked today or ‘slogged’. Read my notes to see what we did, saw and heard while out walking; we of course being me and “Ginger” my Australian Shepherd. Here’s a picture of her to show you how wet some areas were!
Ginger on the wet lane
3-20-10 Notes in My Field Sketchbook
I drew this little branch tip in the field while standing and then later colored it, but closed my book a little too soon and it smeared.
Bud of a red branched bush
I took a picture of one of the branches to show how beautiful the colors are on it; also to show this unusual bud that each bush had, like a swollen rose hip. I’ll have to look up the native bushes to learn more about what I’m seeing. These bushes had little soft catkins on them also.
Below is a more careful study done the next day of two kinds of branch tips I collected and put into water. I’ll hopefully get time to color them too with my watercolors. Now, as they stand in a glass of water on my kitchen table, they are starting to burst forth into a more greenish fuzzy catkin.
Fuzzy Buds 3-21-10
Another thing we heard today, everywhere we went, were the Spring Peepers. They called so loudly and as you creep up to where the noise came from, you could be standing almost on top of them and still not see one! Click on this link to see (or hear) a short video clip of the Spring Peepers singing like mad in the watery ditch along “Long Lane”.
I actually walked pretty far on my land today, I bundled up with lots of layers and told Ginger the magic words, “Go for a WALK?” She can’t contain herself, to the point I get a little annoyed at her insistence at leaving this very moment, regardless of how cold it is and how many layers I believe I need.
"Tree on a Winter Day"
Today I tried to walk without stopping to look at every little thing, just for the start of my walk. I wanted to get some exercise today and do some studies once I get out on the land a bit. When we reached a lane I call “White Tail Trail” I was searching for something interesting. The sky was so blue and clear and when I looked up at this tree, I think an Ash, I liked the branches, shadows and colors. Armed today with my sawed off watercolor pencils and a waterbrush I started the tree, first with a light sketch of the trunk and branches with a light grey watercolor pencil. Now remember I told you I was bundled up? Well imagine freezing cold temperatures a bulky big coat, freezing toes and BIG mittens! haha…it’s always an adventure! I like to wear mittens where the tops flips back and your fingers are then exposed; these are great for quick sketching in winter. I tried to color the drawing with my little pencils and wet them with the waterbrush, but got frustrated when the water froze in a thin layer on the paper. So subsequent color layers became impossible; when I returned home I played around with adding some more color.
1-21-10 "Tree Scars and Bullrushes"
On my way back I stopped to look at the patterns on the trees in Aspen Hall, a favorite area on Long Lane. Where old branches had been but broken off now, there are scars that made interesting marks on the bark.
Here’s the notes I wrote on the page: “Old Branch Scars on an Aspen. Cold today but pretty, Blue skies, snow crunching, Ginger whimpers, we walk on, Chickadee calls, car drones in the distance. I wish I were farther away. We walk on. I pause to study a grapevine tendril- curled still though long dead. And the beauty of the Bull Rushes, the elegant lines…”
1-21-10 "A Bit of Grapevine"
I just love the way grapevine tendrils reach out for anything and grab on…twirling and twining. With this one I was trying to sketch their forms as they twisted out into the air too, I like the way the sunlight cast a good shadow. My feet and hands were very cold at this point and it was hard to concentrate, holding my sketchbook in front of me as I stood to draw this vine clinging to my fence. But as usual I’m glad I took my sketchbook with me to stop and see things.
Just some little sketches from my field book. I pick up leaves just like so many people do, I can’t help it, they call to me from the ground all wet and shiny and brilliant colors. Each one calls, “Pick me up, pick me!” I end up with a pile tucked into my sketchbook where they get nicely pressed but I usually only have time to get one done before they lose their vibrant color. That’s what happened here, I wanted to use my watercolor pencils (and waterbrush) to test colors it would take and the second day when I went to finish it the leaf had already faded quite a bit.
European Goldfinches
The Goldfinches were neat, they kept landing in the long grass in front of my window and eating the dandelion seeds from the seed heads. It was funny to see this one bird with a seed sticking out of his beak, he’s twirl it around from one side of his beak to the other, it looks like a cigarette in the sketch! I used my watercolor pencils for this too, with a waterbrush.
Have you ever gone for a walk on a beautiful day, listening to all the wonderful birds singing around you, and there’s one that seems to be singing right in front of you, but won’t show itself? Sigh. That’s what happened today at the midpoint of my hike, standing quietly listening intently, trying to ‘see’ this mystery bird. So, I think I found a new species, we’ll call it “Invisible Warbler” , perhaps with a Latin name of Invisibulus? Haha, anyone else seen signs of this bird? Well enjoy reading my pages below and the added photos, I’ll add a few notes here and there to explain.
This page from my sketchbook shows a quick watercolor sketch where I was standing. It’s a very wet area filled with these swamp type grasses or sedges and surprisingly I wasn’t bothered by mosquitoes here! As I stood painting, Ginger flushed two Woodcocks at separate times, I guess they like wet areas as they use their long beaks to probe the soil (mud) for worms. My dad said that’s why Woodcocks don’t taste good and I can attest to that! When he used to hunt we had some for dinner…very strong tasting meat. I remember he said they were also very challenging to hunt as they are a hard target; when I see one explode from the brush I can’t imagine how you could actually shoot one! ( I never would anyways!!)
Yellow Throat (2)
Now here’s one of my favorite warblers, a Yellow Throat. I still remember the first time I saw one down in Pennsylvania at Lake Sheridan.
Yellow Throat
He was so difficult to see in the brush, I’m just happy I got these two pictures though they are blurry! I really need to paint this warbler.
Burr
Did you know, the guy who invented “Velcro” got the idea from this little plant? Next time you see some prickly headed Burrs, take a closer look at it. You’ll notice the prickles have little hooked ends on them, not so nice when you go hiking and they stick all over your socks!
Hairy Woodpecker ?
I saw him on “Memory Lane”, heard his tapping before I saw him.
Flycatcher
I’m not very good at identifying Flycatchers, though I got a lot of great photos of this one if anyone wants to help me. Is it just a Phoebe? I found him by my pond.
Eyed Brown
I’m so excited about finding TWO new butterflies, for me that is! The first is this “Eyed Brown Butterfly”, a very simple and plain looking creature. Sometimes it’s looking closer at the ‘plain janes’ that you can appreciate their subtle colors and patterns. I like the combination of light brown with the dark brown spots and the rings with dots. If I was teaching children to notice this, it’d be fun to draw these dots and rings. Also notice the repeated lines of the veins on the wings, a nice pattern.
Eyed Brown (2)
Rose Breasted Grosbeak (fem. or juvenile)
This was a great capture! I was standing quietly on “Oak Lane” and saw him up on a branch at the edge of the woods adjoining a field. It looks like a gigantic sparrow if you were to compare it to something familiar, but notice the heavy beak. This is either a young Rose Breasted Grosbeak or a female, I’m not sure. I’d guess a young one because it looks so ruffled.
Rufus Sided Towhee (m)
Another favorite of mine, the Rufus Sided Towhee. I still remember the first time I saw one of these too, also at Lake Sheridan in Pa. So many great birding memories from Pennsylvania when I was a teenager! My family is originally from the Scranton area…I spent lots of time at Lake Wallenpaupak too…anyone familiar with these lakes?
Rufus Sided Towhee 2 (m)
Wasp
To get this picture, I was a lot farther away then it may seem! I used the zoom on my tiny Olympus camera to capture this one, I just love the pose…looks very elegant actually!
Common Wood Nymph (mating pair)
This is the second new butterfly discovery of the day for me, the “Wood Nymph”. This is a pair mating, I don’t know if the male of female is the larger one, but one was definitely larger and more pronounced markings. On closer look (in real life) the wings looking rather plain here were actually slightly irridescent and rather pretty.
Common Wood Nymph (mating pair) 2
Well I did not find that invisible warbler, let me know if you ever find one, maybe I can figure out a way to get a picture of him?? haha….
Please leave me your comments and if you may know any of the things I asked about…lets hear your thoughts!
Today I went for another walk on Long Lane Farm with my 4 legged companion Ginger. Below I have a page from my sketchbook journal where I show a fun technique of using a frame as a design element. If you keep a few ‘frame’ templates in your field kit you can have some fun tracing them. Some template ideas could be a post it note, an index card, maybe the lens cap from your camera (I thought of this one while sitting and drawing today) and what I used here was a simple refrigerator magnet that has the center that pops out. I think if you take more time to play with this you can really do some nice designs!
field-study-flowers
Clockwise from the top left you can see a Daisey in the grass, then the male Oriole popping his head through the oak leaves at the top of a VERY high old oak. Above that a yellow wildflower that I think is ‘King Devil’ a type of Hawkweed, then ‘Fleabane’, the little pink flower underneath the Oriole. The bottom right is a very pretty wildflower that I found in the Maze..anyone help me with this one? (I have photos of these wildflowers coming up.) In the frame are ‘Common’ or ‘Tall Buttercups’ and around the frame I listed the names of birds I saw or heard today.
field-study-grasses
On the second page I just used the micron permanent pen and drew some grasses. On the right are ‘Soft Rushes’, their pliable stems are what would be used to weave mats or baskets and next to it some type of sedge. The rushes are more closely related to lilies than grasses, my field guide says and I know the stem is round. It’s neat to follow the stem to the top with your fingers and feel how absolutely perfect a point it comes to. The sketch next to it is of some type of sedge, honestly I can’t find it in my guide. They had a most interesting design in their growth, three leaves jutting out from the top in different directions and the clustered seed pods looking like spikey critters! It had a triangular stem which reminds me of the saying…”Sedges have edges”.
tree-swallow-youngster
I snapped this shot as I was leaving the yard, just after his mom or dad had visited the hole. What a face! haha!
fleabane
And here’s the pretty pink ‘Daisy Fleabane’, people used to hang it in their houses to keep away the fleas…not sure if it worked! I have a big clump of these sprouted up in my front flower bed and they are really pretty. Many people would have yanked it thinking ‘weed’, but well, it has lots of company with all the other weeds!
white-flower
This is the mystery flower, can anyone help me identify it? I love the fine fuzz on it, as I look at a close up picture, it catches the sun. They were growing together in a patch in the middle of the Maze.
King Devil-Hawkweed
I think this is called King Devil a type of Hawkweed; I found it growing at ‘Aspen Hall’ a shady area along the lane just before the Maze. It has fine bristly hairs all over it and the flowers were all confined to just the top of one long stem. I had to move grasses to find the leaves, which were tucked low at ground level.
white-moth
This white moth was interesting to study. I spotted him when Ginger and I were returning along ‘Oak Lane’, it was flitting eratically along the path, as butterflies do. I kept following it to try and get a picture and I’m sure it knew it was being followed. I thought about how strange it is for a WHITE butterfly to be amonst so much green! It stands out like a sore thumb, well I have a feeling this photo will teach you something. When it landed instead of staying on top of the leaf and closing it’s wings, it very quickly flipped under the leaf and laid it’s wings out. Now you’d think oh I’ll still see the white, but no, the green leaf reflected on it’s wings and it now looked green! How cool is that? If you ask questions as you stand and watch the bugs and critters around you, you’ll start to notice details you never thought of before.
oriole-male
Here is the gloriously beautiful male Baltimore Oriole! I love seeing them, such an intense orange and yellow breast set off by deep black like velvet! He’s way up in an oak tree looking down at me, can you tell? I love this picture of him. This was along Oak Lane and I ended up standing still here for quite a long time. I kept hearing several different birds give their warning chirp like they had babies near.
oriole-nest
I’m glad I stood as long as I did, I caught sight of what I guessed was a female Oriole and studied where she disappeared to. Aha! They have a nest way up in the oak tree, hanging out over the path! It’s amazing that birds can actually weave a basket nest like this in the tree and it supports the eggs and adult, later all growing into heavier fledglings. If you look close you can just see the female through the leaves, leaning down into the nest to feed the babies.
green-bug
I think this little green guy who came to visit me while I was eating and painting was really neat! I haven’t found him yet in my field guide, I think I need another bug guide to cross reference.
black-beetle
And last we have a very black, very shiney beetle…no I don’t think it’s this beetle but I’d love to hear some suggestions? Closest I’ve come is either a ‘Ground Beetle’, or ‘Red Legged Ham Beetle’ or a ‘Blue Milkweed Beetle’.
I hope you enjoyed the walk with me today, so much was seen and discovered in what looks just like an ordinary field and woodland edge. Take time to stand or sit still and just watch what the creatures around you do. And you’ll see so much more if you look a bit closer at the ground, grasses or flowers as there is always something living there.
Please post a comment if you like and if you may know what my bugs or flowers are, please lets have a stab at it!
Here’s the books I referenced after my hike today:
Reader's Digest Wildflowers Guide
Nat.Wildlife Fed. Field Guide to Insects and Spiders of N. America
I thought I’d start out this post by letting my sketch page tell you what’s happening. You can read about the awful mosquitoes and tiny flies that bite and try constantly to get into your eyes, oh what a bother they were. I also started a list of birds as I heard or saw them. I did a fast sketch of a yellow wildflower that I still havd to look up, fast I say because of the bugs. Sometimes this can be good training, working quickly and just going for overall shapes of things. I gesture sketched the placement of the ‘ball’ shaped flower clusters, and drew one in detail, then later sitting at my kitchen table added details and colored it. Here’s a photo of the flower:
yellow-wildflower
So Ginger (my dog and hiking companion) and I pushed onward…away from the bugs! As we made our way to the Maze (I’ll have to post a map of my land so you can follow where all these places are!) I took some photos of more birds.
yellow-warbler
yellow-warbler-4
Above you can see two pictures of a Yellow Warbler, what a beautiful bird with the reddish streaks on his breast. I found him at the Maze and my next blog post you’ll see even nicer pictures of him. After I caught him on film (ahem…digital) I turned and did a sketch of the “Sister Trees” along side Long Lane in the Maze. First I drew a simple rectangle and then sketched the part of the trees I wanted into the box. Later I doodled around and added the frame look, see it below. It is not a drawing of the trees in the photo below it.
sketch-page-2-5-16-09
And then there’s my wonderful old oak trees; one growing along my property line in the field, the other is part of a long line of oaks along the other property line with a path called Oak Lane. Oak Lane is my favorite part of my property besides the Enchanted Forest. We call it that and at times it’s the Emerald Forest. Yes, it’s a magical place!
oak-trees
old-oak
You can see in this photo the sky was getting grey, and the air got cooler, a rain storm was coming. Ginger and I hurried our pace down Oak Lane then up Memory Lane…We made it home just in time to run across the yard in a downpour, my camera tucked under my fleece jacket. I don’t mind getting wet but NOT my camera!
Before we left for our hike, I took a few bird pictures around the yard and barn.
song-sparrow
One of my favorites the Song Sparrow, he loves this one particular post to sit upon.
tree-swallow-on-branch
And here’s Mr. Swallow in the tree above his nest box home, he sat there preening for a bit.
tree-swallow-in-box
And here’s the happy home, a Blue Bird nest box that the swallows are very happy to use. This is the third year at least they’ve nested here. If you walk near they will fly circles around you and come quiet close depending on how close you are to their box. Last year I assisted them in chasing away a pair of very pushy (and not very nice) House Sparrows that were aggressively trying to take the box.
house-sparrow-male
Here’s Mr. House sparrow, he and the misses decided to nest in a metal pole left from an old satellite dish. At least this year all the birds seem to be getting along, within feet of each other there’s a Starling nest in the wall of the barn, the House Sparrows next to that, then Starlings in one of my blue bird houses and the Tree Swallows in that other. I have two nest boxes out in my field, one has Tree Swallows and the other I think the Blue Birds were able to get. Pictures of them coming up soon! Hope you enjoyed the photos, soon I’ll start some small paintings of the birds.
A Valentines Day bouquet from your sweetie is very nice…smells so sweet, warms your heart..but doesn’t last forever no matter what you do. Unless you get out your paints and do some studies! After a week of enjoying the blooms…then watching some slowly fade, I picked out the freshest ones and moved them into another vase up to my studio. As I did the tulips dropped their petals in a flourish, woosh…all over the table. I picked some up and looked at them, thinking how beautiful their individual forms and colors were.
I decided to do studies of the petals and laid them on my paper with a strong little lamp above me. I should have titled this post “How to Paint Through Pain”…that is, how to cope with painting while in pain. I painted these on the floor, my lower back has been hurting and sitting in a chair was too much to bear. So, I put it on the floor and kept moving around…kneeling, laying on my stomach…what ever I could. I got a bit messy with some areas of these studies, but then it was hard to concentrate! I started each with a basic gesture of the shape very lightly drawn with pencil. The shadows were the most fun to paint, studying the colors coming through the petals. A tip here, to keep the petals fresh until you’re ready to work, put them in a ziplock sandwich bag with a sprinkle of water, then put them in the refrigerator. Tell everyone NOT to eat them!!
Oh yes, the other thing is I did them with just my waterbrush…see above picture. You can see the petals laying on my paper and waterbrush in my hand. (PS. this was really late at night…actually I think it was 1am!)
So now I can look at the little study and always remember my Valentines surprise bouquet! I wish I had time to do more studies..I had planned to, but you know how that goes!
Today as the sun shone and the temperatures climbed to a balmy 30 or so degrees, I felt a very strong urge to just grab my field kit and go for a hike with Ginger. I notice whenever I go out field sketching or work on a painting in the studio, it’s like having a visit to the therapist! I feel like I’ve just had some kind of adjustment, and all is right in my world! Troubles melt away as I stop to catch my breath and listen to the wind gusting through the trees. Today was no different. (click on any picture to see enlarged view)
First small sketch done with a micron 05 permanent marker, it’s along the path that’s called “Long Lane” on my farm. To warm up and to see if drawing with my fingerless mittens would feel comfortable, I did the top of a small oak tree, then turned and looked down the lane where Ginger was disappearing down, and did a quickly scrawled sketch. It’s ok that it’s not beautiful and meticulously drawn, I can remember the scene in my mind just be looking at it. Sometimes the field sketch can have more movement and show more excitement than a carefully executed studio drawing. I also find that being able to work loosely in the field keeps my studio painting fresh and lively looking.
Just me in my dad’s old wool hunting coat that I treasure, using the fingerless mitten ok. I picked up this pair in England at a regular clothes store at the mall, I made sure they had wool in them, and I like the dark brown color (to hide the dirt of course silly!). At this point I think my fingers were cold, sometimes I worked with the top pulled back and sometimes closed. I’m using a waterbrush here and watercolors, I put my kit in a new bag to try out, an over the shoulder binder type thing, but no room for apples or water bottles. Extra things had to go in the back secret pouch on the hunting jacket, made for carrying dead birds that the hunter (dad) would shoot. It’s actually a handy pouch…I slid my sketchbook in there when I would get moving on my hike.
This is a page with a simple color study of the red bark on bushes and the little fern heads coming up through the snow. Their forms, almost silhouette because they’re so dark, are wonderful to study.
The photo above shows a leaf I found in a tiny birds nest that was tucked into a tangled bush. It’s small things like this that if you take time to notice the subtle beauty your enjoyment of the natural world and simple walks would be much more memorable. This leaf is a simple shape, but I love the mixture of subtle colors, there’s a promise of green there that makes me think of spring, it’s almost as if the green was frozen from the fresh times of summer. The pattern of the veins and cells is really something too, the wet sheen on it’s surface reflecting a cool light.
Then turn the same leaf over and it’s a whole other leaf! This side has a network of raised veins showing, like fine meshwork netting and the contrast of the color of vein to leaf is at once noticed. The fall like colors are not showing on this side. When you pick something up, turn it over and explore everything about it; if you draw it, you will study it deeply, noting it’s every interesting detail. Sometimes this is good to do once you get back home and can sit in the warmth and take time to study it.
Here’s another nest I found that almost looks like it has an ice cream scoop for an egg waiting to be hatched by the warm spring sun. (It’ll have to wait awhile still!) Walking in winter is a good time to look for birds nests, just look at bushes or trees for clumps of dark areas, usually made by leaves and small branches. It’s fun to look closely at them, how the tiny branches are laid criss cross and woven, and imagine two birds picked up ever single twig and made that. Some nests are tiny things..some larger and could even be for grey squirrels. I don’t ever disturb the nests…I feel they are there to be used somehow by other creatures, mice, bugs, etc. and I just let it alone. I will carefully pull some leaves out of a nest to see what the cup might look like.
Now this page has notes you can read, but I’ll explain a bit more. I went to a part of my land that has huge old oak trees on it, and one in particular that is dead. This dead tree had all kinds of funguses growing on it and was great to study.
I learned something new that I didn’t expect, there was an interesting type of fungus growing on the underside of all the large branches. It was a beautiful natural yellow with some orangey colors in it, but very muted. The funny thing was I noticed the snow beneath it had yellow spots following the branches, NO Ginger didn’t do that! haha…but as the snow piled on top of the branches melted, the yellow color in the fungus was dripping down to the ground. I wonder if the Indians or settlers used that as a color for something?
Here’s a close up, if anyone can help me identify this I’d be grateful. I looked it up in my mushroom and fungus books but can’t find it specifically.
This fungus is as far as I can tell, a “Redbelt” shelf fungus. I did a painting in the field while looking at it and looked it up when I got home. (The painting is below). The odd thing was, as closely as I thought I looked at this, I still missed something interesting. When I got home and uploaded my photos, I noticed on some close ups there were little blackish bugs crawling all over the place!! Ewww….I have to admit, I like studying bugs, but the idea that there were bugs all over this fungus and tree and I didn’t know it kind of made me uneasy! But the fascinating thing was that there were bugs out doing their thing in the middle of the winter! You would be surprised at what you’ll see on a mild winter day!At this point, at the end of my hike after being out two hours, my toes were frozen and getting numb. This is when the idea of hot cocoa creeps into my mind and Ginger’s happy face asking, “Can we go home yet?” starts to distract me.
This last page I finished at home while drinking that hot cocoa; the tree and fungus I did in the field. I brought home a stick with neat fungus growing on it, the leaf I photographed and a dead leaf. This stick was very interesting to look at under a magnifying glass, the black fungus was shiny and the rose colored had a velvety sheen almost. I made a stab at identifying the rose colored as Hypoxylon Fragiforme, any experts out there can verify this? I added color notes too so you could see what paints I used.
I hope you enjoyed our hike today in the winter chill! Sign up your email in the right column to recieve updates when I post new things. Happy Hiking!
What a day I had at the Swallow Hollow nature trail, part of the Iroqouis Wildlife Preserve. The above photo was just one of the many beautiful scenes I saw that day; the trail follows the water in a nice loop, sometimes going through woods, mostly near the marsh or some natural looking water canals. Much of the trail is a boardwalk to keep you up from the very wet ground, especially after such a rainy summer!
This is a picture of my new sketchbook cover, it’s a sketchbook that I designed and made myself with a long format. I thought it’d be fun to put some pictures of my paintings on the cover, to show people I meet some of my work. I can add or take pages from the sketchbook as I want to.
This is the first page of my sketchbook from my day out. I stopped at a nice area in the Tonawanda Wildlife Management area, Elizabeth Hilldurger Estate project. I was so happy to see two Great Egrets (or in my old Peterson guide American Egret) flying around. The one roosted in a tree far away, I tried to do some little sketches by looking through my binoculars.
The watercolor of the water scene I did using my little watercolor ‘altoids’ field kit and just a water-brush. It’s pretty simple looking but I did it quickly while standing up.
This is me pausing to sketch along the boardwalk. You can see I have my art kit bag on my waist and a backpack with other supplies on my back. Almost all of what I draw, I draw while I’m standing and looking at things. Along the way on my walks I usually meet some nice people who are curious about what I’m doing. I met a couple walking their dogs, Papillions…Pudgie is the puppy furiously digging the hole in the back…Max is the one gazing up at his owner. Maybe this is the kind of dog I should get to keep me company in the house? I’ve seen them before and thought about it. Their owner told me Papillion means butterfly in french….well at least it’s their names meaning, I guess because of how they look with their ears perked.
Next is another page from my sketchbook, click it to see it closer. I met a little Leopard frog along the way and did quick little sketches of him, then painted it at home using metallic watercolor paints. He really had a metallic look to his skin, so beautiful! At the end of this post you’ll see a little video clip of him!
I saw many Harvestman spiders in the woods and did a sketch of one on a dying milkweed leaf. I also took photos so when I got home I was able to paint it with watercolors. I took step by step photos of the painting, perhaps I’ll get to post it separately later.
I did some reading about Harvestmen Spiders, which are only distantly related to spiders, they are not venomous, lack fangs and do not bite. They use their legs to walk, breath, smell and capture prey! There are 5,000 species, about 235 known in North America, most are drab brown or grey, but a few are rusty red, mottled spots or have a stripe down their back. Now that I know that, I know I was lucky to see a rusty red one, and the one I painted had a mottled kind of dark stripe on it. One more interesting detail to keep my eyes open for while hiking! I hope you take a closer look next time you meet one.
This next page shows a light pencil sketch I did of the path, I also took some photos so later I could color it in. I haven’t gotten that far yet! The mushrooms at the bottom of the page I went specifically to Swallow Hollow to try to find again and paint, I saw them there just a week before. I could use some help indentifying them if anyone has expertise in this area?? I have become fascinated with mushrooms and fungi…when you walk in the woods, just take a close look at the ground or on trees or dead logs, you’ll be surprised at what you might discover! I’ve seen gorgeous yellow or orange mushrooms that I didn’t expect. The picture of the orange mushroom I could use help identifying too.
I set up my stool in the woods and I painted this study from life. It was difficult because the lighting kept changing, first direct, raking light, then very dark shadows. As I painted a Harvestmen Spider crawled across my sketchbook, pausing over my painting to ‘taste’ the wet paint! Before I could get my camera, he crawled off down my leg….he being a spider that he was I helped him hurry off me! I don’t mind them too much, but don’t want them lingering. At least I can say, knowing they are harmless helps me not to react like Little Miss Muffet! Remember her story?
This is the last page from my outing…while I was in the field I sketched the tiny mushrooms in pencil…kneeling in the pine needles to gain a closer look. They’re done at life size. Then while walking later I went over the lines with a sepia colored Micron Permanent ink pen. Later at home I printed out the photos I took of them and added the watercolor. I have found that when I do something in graphite pencil in the field, I get disappointed at how it will smear or fade with all the use the sketchbook gets, so I like to use my micron pens a lot to draw.
The while fungus is fascinating…they are hard to notice…you might just step right past them, but you have to be aware of everything and look everywhere when you walk. These are also drawn at life size, aproximately 2″ tall and coming up like delicate white filaments from the forest floor. A mystery to me, if anyone can tell us please do.
The butterfly was a type I saw all day, following me it seemed, to see what I was doing in their woods? I sketched it in the field on a leaf, but later painted it from a photo. Can anyone help me with identifying it?
I added a short video clip of my meeting with the Leopard Frog along a sunny path, check it out!
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