A post sharing my notes and photos from a cold, wet walk on Easter Sunday. I was still able to find interesting life, wait till you see the video clip with Tadpole eggs! Please click images to see them larger or be taken to see them as cards you can zoom in on, use the BACK button to return.
Easter Sunday 2011
Below is a picture of what it looked like when I was sitting on a pile of dead logs, my rubber boots deep in water, and trying not to drop anything! My hands were cold, as you could guess from my trusty wool flip back mittens. This is just a small, quick sketch done with watercolor crayons.
Watercolor crayons, brush and journal on my lap above the water.
Then I video taped the little tadpoles floating in the water here in front of the pond, have a look!
By the time I got to Oak Lane, where the wild Mayapples grow, I was tired and cold.
A sea of green umbrellas, like little people waiting in the woods!
I was excited to see the Mayapples though, they always surprise me as they don’t grow anywhere else on my land. They look like a sea of green umbrellas held by miniature people standing in the woods, maybe they’re fairies?
Mayapples softly unfolding.
Mayapple unopened yet, such a tender green with hints of reddish tints.
Below just a few small sketches done while standing and looking down at them. I had to give up soon though, my back was seizing up saying enough!
Mayapples + Green Frogs
I was excited to find a Green Frog in the pasture on my way back, he was moving slow because it was so cold. I was actually able to snatch him up after he dove under water! heehee…I felt like a little kid!
Meet my new friend, Mr. Green Frog
Always gentle with creatures I touch, I was careful how I held him, and with experienced deftness (;-) ) whipped out my tiny camera and got some close up shots of him.
Mr. Green Frog poses for his 3/4 profile shot!
Don’t worry, I didn’t entertain thoughts of kissing him! I already found my prince! But I do think Mr. Green Frog was trying to look handsome.
Green Frog in the grass
Then he was gently returned to the grass and as many frogs will do, just sat there while I continued to snap pictures and also do the small watercolor sketch. They believe themselves to be invisible while not moving. Here’s a tip from me, when photographing a frog, or any critter, take some shots right away in case they jump away. Then after you have a few, try moving your position a bit or as I sometimes do, move some grasses that might be in the way. With this green guy, I was actually able to gently remove grasses in front of his face, then from his body as he sat frozen, watching me. It was a cold day so maybe he was extra sluggish. Then he jumped away into the water and I took more shots.
I really do like frogs and feel a bit guilty for not doing a nice little painting for you to see, BUT I was really cold and wet by the time I met Mr. Green Frog and couldn’t wait to get home for a hot bath. I’d like to do some drawings from my photos though, when I do you’ll be first to know!
I hope you enjoyed coming on my walk with me, it was kind of lonely until I met the tadpoles and then the frog. I guess you’re always surrounded by friends if you stop to meet them!
Here’s some links to fun things in my shop with “Mr. Green Frog” on them:
I thought I’d add a series of posts that introduce my new watercolor crayons, a few old ones, and how to start using them in hopes that some of what I do may help someone else.
When I first bought watercolor (or water soluble) crayons I tried them and didn’t like them at all! I thought the colors garish and harsh. I thought “what a lot of money for these little things and I’m not going to use them!”. Well I’ve only recently pulled them back out and have been playing with them. I’ve learned from using watercolor pencils, go lightly at first until you know just what your colors will do when you wet them.
Please click on pictures to see them bigger.
Water soluble crayons in a tin
Here’s the set of colors I started with, Caran D’Ache Neo colors and one or two Derwent Watercolor crayons.Ā I also show a “crayola wax crayon” and explained in another post (below) how I used it. I cut them in half (oh heavens yes I did!) to make them lighter to carry in my sketch bag and I could fit more; here I show them in an “Altoids” mint tin.Ā The other halves go into a baggy for later or to carry in another kit.
I took them out into the field and did some small landscape studies using these few crayons. There are links at the end of my post you can click on to read about them. After doing them I was feeling more enthused about my crayons, I think it’s time to look for more colors!
New Tin of Watercolor Crayons, Staedtler "Karat Aquarell" Neocolor II
More colors in other brands…landscape colors hopefully. I thought I’d try these Staedtler “Karat Aquarell” neo color II, they were reasonably priced online. Because I’ve been desperate for sunshine this spring, it was gorgeous that evening so I sat on my front steps to do my color charts.
New Watercolor Crayons, wow look at all those colors!
Here’s the crayons! Woohoo….they look nice! I’m hopeful that some of those greens might be what I was looking for.
Getting ready to wet the colors and have some fun!
First I want to stress that before you do any paintings with ANY media, watercolors, color pencils, oils etc, you should ALWAYS do some color charts of all your colors. This will help you to get to know the colors as they really look on paper (or canvas) and get familiar with how to handle them.
In my sketch journal, I rubbed a small spot of color and wrote in permanent ink pen the colors name next to it. It helps to also put an initial for the name brand too or label it at the top as I did.Ā Prepare one row and do the wash before you color the next set of spots, just so you don’t run out of room. Keep it neat because you can refer back to these charts again and again as you get to know your colors.
Color Charts of two brands of Watercolor Crayons
After you make your dry spots of color take a waterbrush or regular watercolor brush and water, wet the bristles and touch it to the color spot. Notice how as you ‘rub’ the color it releases and becomes like watercolor. If you rub a lot you can blend the spot right out for an even tone, but leave some intense color there, drag your brush as you rub back and forth, to one side to pull color away. Then lift your brush to stop, don’t rub too far out, keep ’em neat. Now your ready to put on any more spots you may need to and wet them; leave room for labeling them. After wetting a color rinse your brush and wipe or rub on a paper towel to make sure all color is cleaned off it.
As you can see, I did my new crayons on the left, my original crayons on the right so I can compare them.
Color Charts with my comparing colors close together in the centre.
Now to have some more fun, it’s time to compare colors from different sets so I can decide which ones are too similar to carry around with me. This is a ‘getting to know you’ exercise now and VERY important! The more you play with your colors the better your choices will be when you’re painting. Sometimes when I haven’t painted in a certain media in awhile, I’ll go through and do color charts just like this.Ā So you can see the middle is a riot of colors!! I grouped the blues, then greens then browns and goldie colors, all good for landscapes. Label, label, label!!
( I really like how this page looks with all the color swatches, I decided to make note cards and t-shirts of it!! See the links at the end of this post š )
More color play to further test some out.
Ok, then the page adjoining that one had to be used for more testing, wow, am I going to use all these pinks?
My Watercolor Crayons + Waterbrush
After all this playing I ended up with a pile of cut crayons (yes I cut my new crayons in half too! Yikes how awful!) So I searched through my favorite shelf of odds n ends, containers etc for my field kits, and found a plastic case from I think, a small first aid kit. I love that it’s plastic = lightweight! This is a picture from my previous blog post where I used the big flat water brush.
Here are the blog posts I’ve done so far using the crayons, in order of date posted:
April is coming to a close soon, hopefully lets say goodbye to a wet, cold month!
April Poem
The last post I did a drawing on a very cold, damp day then I wrote this word “April” in my sketch journal and later colored it in while watching a movie. I had fun making it 3 dimensional and coloring it. Then two days later I wrote the poem while sitting in “Aspen Hall” while out for a walk on my land. I wrote it in the back of my journal first on lined paper then re-wrote it with watercolor pencil on the page here, and added the swirlies. I took a waterbrush and washed over it all to ‘release’ the color.
Here’s the short, simple poem, one of my un-serious poems!
“April”
April is the time of year
When cold winds blow,
And sun does cheer.
Buds are out and grass is greening,
Love sick birdies
All are preening.
Mary McAndrew 4-15-11
Enjoy the following photos from my walk.
Bush Blossoms
These bushes would have been easy to walk right by, their blooms aren’t showy like our garden shrubs. But if you stop to take notice and look a little closer they are really beautiful. Soft and delicate, with yellow tips, and then the sun shone through them they almost glowed like magic.
One of my really old oak trees
I have a line of really old oak trees, my farm is around 200 years old so I figure that’s how old these are. Their girth is such it would take several people to reach around their base. I love hugging this tree!
My seat in Aspen Hall
Just a simple pile of dead branches and small trees I have been adding to during the early spring. Aspen Hall is an area on my land that we used to sit in for picnics (my boys and I) and it’s been neglected over the past years. I’ve been going out to it whenever I go for a walk with Ginger.
Sap like a red jewel in the scar of a tree
I had to look closely at this red jelly like jewel in the tree scar. I took this picture using the closeup setting and making the camera look through my magnifier.
Old farm equipment in the woods
Another interesting find, some really old farm equipment! I think it’s so cool looking how it blends into the forest colors.
Old farm equipment in my woods
One last shot of the farm equipment; anyone know what it might be? It had plow ‘thingys’ on the back.
Just a pair of pages from my very small field sketch journal (3 x 4″ aprox) that I can tuck into a tiny ‘purse’ with a miniature sharpie marker, waterbrush and one black water soluble pencil (Derwent’s Inktense Ink Black). Here I just wrote some words and did a small sketch with the marker, while sitting on a pile of logs and wearing mittens mind you!
I know it seems out of place, this painting of snow when it’s Spring (at least it’s trying to be spring!) but I found I had never posted this and would hate to have it forgotten! So here’s a short post about a cold, snowy walk in January! If you click it you’ll see prints of it in many sizes.
"Field at Long Lane Farm" watercolor
I did this little 7 x 7″ painting in my journal while standing in the lane that goes out to the fields on my farm. I love the subtle colors of winter, the red tipped bushes and the cool blues in the snow. On a good sunny day you can have to most intensely blue colored skies and high contrast clouds. Not that you’ll ever hear your weather man call them that! “today there’s a chance of high contrast clouds with rain” hahaha.
Seed heads along the walk
Here are some notes I wrote as I paused to look at some dead seed heads.
Watercolor pan, brush and waterbottle
And this shows you what I used, not a waterbrush but a ‘proper’ watercolor brush, just used the one and a plastic bottle for water. In the winter you can’t use the waterbrushes that are so popular as the water tends to freeze as you paint on the paper.
Hope you enjoyed the late posting…I hope we can all say goodbye to winter weather soon!
Here’s some prints and note cards of this little watercolor in my shop:
(if viewing this in an email subscription, please go to the website to see the video clip and pictures better)
Clouds Over Fox Lane
Above, this is the first view Ginger and I got when we started out on our walk; clouds, gorgeous clouds stretching as far as the eye could see! I love the way the old pasture fence looks here along “Fox Lane”.
“Wind in the Willows”
I’ll show you right away what I ended up sketching after we walked all the way out on the property. (At the end of my post I have links to note cards and gifts using this image!) I had a page in my journal with the first verse of the song from “The Wind in the Willows”, the popular children’s tv show, written in permanent ink. I knew eventually I’d do some kind of painting over it of trees.Ā I just love the song from this show, I posted a link below so you could have a listen too!
To explain a little how I did the sketch, as I stood in about 8″ of water on a particularly wet path, I held my sketch journal and balanced the little box of crayons on it. I have taken all my water soluble crayons and cut them in half so I could carry more in a smaller space and less weight! I put it on a peice of paper towel to protect a little watercolor I’ve got on that page, and I put a piece of paper towel (Viva) next to the box for wiping my brush on. I used one flat water brush, a favorite of mine when I want to do very quick washes and scrubbing. This particular brand releases water quite fast, at first I didn’t like that but now it’s also why I DO use it!
First thing I did was to scribble with white crayola wax crayon where I wanted to show white clouds. It doesn’t really show up until you color around it, but if you tip your paper a tiny bit you can see it. Then I colored very quickly with two different blue water soluble crayons all around; I found that I could shade right over the white wax and it didn’t really disturb it, cool! Then very quick scrubbing with the waterbrush to wet and move the color around. I grabbed the paper towel and sometimes blotted off the white cloud and it helped soften the look. Using the grey crayon ‘under’ each cloud really helped to pull them out and make them look real.
The trees were drawn on with a brown wc crayon from Derwent, using the hard edge to make branches. It works really great on damp paper, the lines are very vivid. I must say, it’s the scribbley look of the painting that I like so much! I could go back and soften the bottom of the moon, but it was a field sketch and I think I’ll just leave it as is. It was hard to get the look in such a tiny thing while hand holding my journal.
View I painted from while standing in water!
This is a photo from the spot I was standing, can you see the tiny moon in the middle?
A close up of the moon
Sometimes when you’re outside in the middle of the day, if you look for it you’ll see the moon amongst the clouds. I always think it’s a nice surprise.
Ginger all wet!
Yes, Miss Ginger is wet but doesn’t mind. This is the lane I stood in to do my sketch.
An old nest left from last year
I spotted some old nests as I walked, this one was out near “The North Pole”, the furthest part of my land. It’s amazing how many nests are at our eye level but we don’t see them when the bushes are in full leaf.
Clouds in Spring Over the Lane
I’ll leave you with one more pretty picture. I just love the colors in this, the blues contrasting with the golden colors of the dried grasses, the reds in the tips of the bushes and trees and the purpley colors under the clouds.
I hope you enjoyed our walk again out on “Long Lane Farm” at Springtime. Please enjoy the pictures links shown below, they go to prints, note cards, tee shirts and a magnet using my “Wind in the Willows” field sketch painting, in my shop. I can’t wait to order a tee shirt for myself!
Visit mySHOP to see many beautiful note cards with photos of the new Spring flowers, bees, landscapes etc!
(if you are viewing this from your email subscription, please visit my blog on the actual website to see the video and links properly)
Today I went for a walk with Ginger. We ventured forth out into the wet lanes and fields, the mud sucking at our feet, water swirling as we waded. Not all my land is wet mind you, but this time of year it certainly is in some areas.Ā I start my post off today with my drawings of the little snail I met while out walking, because I knew you’d be curious to see him.
Little Golden Snail Sketches
I did these studies actually back at my studio while looking at him under a magnifying glass. I did some while in the field (you’ll see below) but it was so small it was hard to really get a good look at him while I sat on a log! So he came home for a visit. I first lightly sketched him with pencil then drew with a permanent ink pen and then watercolor on that. After I drew the swirly curly border I drew over it with one watercolor pencil then just dragged a wet waterbrush over all of it to soften it and make the color bleed out a bit.
Now back to our walk.
Secret Circle Lane
This is “Secret Circle Lane”, as wet as it always is in springtime; (click it for high res. view in my shop) how pretty reflecting the sky like that! Ginger and I crept quietly along through this water because I heard an interesting call from some kind of frog along with the zillions of peepers that were singing.
Here’s a short video clip I shot while standing in the water,Ā just to let you hear the sound of the Peepers calling.
my boots
Ah yes, the trusty boots! Can’t go anywhere without these mud boots or “Wellies”. Well these boots weren’t made for “walkin” they were made for “sloshin”!! I did see some interesting little critters in the water before our feet disturbed it, some snails and a few water beetles.
me
Oh, and there’s me…had to show you my favorite hat of all time and my Dad’s hunting coat! The hat I bought in England at a farm supply shop, where they sell the expensive horsey equipment and clothes. Well it WAS expensive too, BUT well worth ever penny! It’s waterproof, lined for warmth, has a flap that drops down over your ears and makes it fit your head like a helmet and has an elastic cord that goes under your chin for high winds. When the wind blew hard on the high hills of Northumberland, my wonderful hat stayed put!! The other nifty thing is it has a little button on the brim you click and you get two settings of led lights! High power beams!! I’m telling you we’ve used it to find our way on paths past dusk and it’s great for visiting old castle ruins because you can point your beam into dark places that you wouldn’t have seen before. I should get paid money to promote this hat!
And the wonderful old Woolrich hunting coat my dad gave me so I love it. He used to put it on when going out hunting, I still remember seeing him in the kitchen with the pants on with bright red suspenders and laughing playing like he was Santa! It is covered with pockets and has a special pocket at the back for carrying your ‘game’ home in. I have been known to carry sketchbooks there and always keep a spare kitchen size garbage bag for sitting on wet ground.
Crocuses in Aspen Hall
I told you before that we planted flowers in “Aspen Hall”, here’s two little crocuses I wanted to sketch.Ā Click to see a note card of it where you can zoom in and see it bigger.
golden snail
I love the close up pictures of this pretty little golden snail. I spotted him on the ground amongst the leaf litter, but in the sun he glistened like gold. I took my tiny Olympus camera on the macro setting and shot this picture through a close up part of my magnifying glass! It really works at getting a little closer. Click on the pictures to view note cards that you can view close up.
golde snail pointy end up!
Here’s another shot of him, I love the form of the shell twisting up like that.
Studying the snail closely for sketches
Now this picture is important because it shows you how tiny he was and when you need reading glasses to see things better, it doesn’t help. The other thing that made it difficult to draw him in the field was sitting on one little log made my back hurt terribly so I was not comfortable. I wrote my notes and did some little sketches anyways.
golden snail peeking at me
Another great shot, I love the patterns in the shell that the sunlight catches. And notice the subtle color that runs up through those eye stalks? I notice how well it matches the dead stick he was crawling on.
My Journal page
Here’s my actual journal page from my time sitting in “Aspen Hall”, go ahead and click it to read it.
Tiny Golden Snail with metallic gold watercolor paint added.
Now I had a little more fun with the snail studies I did by using some metallic watercolor paint on them. I took some pictures of the snail paintings tipped at an angle to catch the sun and really show the metallic watercolor paint I added on top. It was a lot of fun using it and really made it look like the snail did, it sparkled in the sun!
Golden Snails in watercolor with gold metallic watercolor over.
And one more shot showing the glitter in the full sun.
I hope you enjoyed our walk today and you didn’t even have to get your feet wet! š Don’t forget to visit my SHOP by clicking the pictures above to see note cards of the little golden snail or the landscape photos in this post.
Here’s a note card using the watercolor studies:
Speaking of snails I’m honored to say there’s a wonderful blog written by two talented women one of which was inspired by my posts about the snail I found and did studies of while I was in England! Have a look here: “The Dao of Doing”
Today the sun was out so warm and I eventually found myself in the backyard in a lawn chair for the first time this season. I pondered my journal and things going on in my life, then before you know it I was writing a poem. So I’m sharing it with you here, hope you like it. (I also typed it at the end so you can read it minus the typo’s!Ā š
“The Journals’ Answer” by Mary McAndrew
My poem "The Journals' Answer" on parchment
As usual I like to share with you a little about how I did something. Below are color swatches to show what color’s I used making this parchment. The top five are water soluble crayons, the bottom one is Derwent’s Inktense black water soluble pencil. I used the top four mostly, and at the end I added some black right next to the edge of the paper. I then added some black water soluble crayon over it just to try it. The paper was Bristol Vellum and it’s great for a journal you’ll paint in but it only handles a so much ‘rubbing’ when you’re blending layers of colors.
Color chart for what I used making the parchment
I jotted the poem on some lined paper I keep at the back of my journal then started to write it ‘neatly’ (hahah) on the journal page. I didn’t realize it was going to grow to be so long so I drew the parchment borders after I got the whole thing written. Oh and as a side note, I didn’t really cry though I felt a frustration with some things on my mind. Writing about crying was like crying for real.
*
“The Journals’ Answer”
Holding my journal in my hands,
I think of things I don’t understand.
Breezes warm upon my face,
Leave behindĀ no sign or trace.
Of feelings that welled from inside.
Tracks of wet tears that from my eyes
Ran freely down upon my cheek.
Leaving nothing for me to speak.
Where will this future take me now?
I ask my book, my pages, “how?”
Can they not give me some support?
I listen hard for it’s retort,
Is it my book I hear replying
Or the breeze in yon willow sighing?
My heart tells me what I’m feeling
Write it, draw it, find your healing.
Pages open wide for me
Put to paper what I see.
Draw and write what I hold dear
Focusing on these makes it clear.
Leaving my writing for all to see
Nature drawings now history.
My world is your world, this my gift,
To hope it gives a little lift.
No time for tears or heavy sighs
Lift your spirits to the skies.
Find your path, do what you will
Just remember “don’t sit still”!
Futures come and futures go
This you can be sure to know.
Thank you journal, you showed me how
To stop and see what’s here now.
Now is all that matters much
The rest is all “out of touch”.
Draw it, share it, live it, breath it,
In my journal I will leave it.
(c) Mary McAndrew 2011
I may change the line that reads “Futures come and futures go” to “The future comes then it goes”? Usually when I write a poem I finish it pretty fast, all in one sitting because it just kind of flows out at that time. Sometimes I go back and rearrange a bit.
Well leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Ponderings of a poet-naturalist-artist!
Well today there were the most beautiful high clouds, and the sun, making an appearance for the afternoon, gave nice shadows and light to them. I used my square format journal that I made and opened it fully to take advantage of the great sky-scape.
Cloud study done with water soluble crayons
This view is from my studio window, I stood by the old sink finding room near the coffee pot! I worked very quickly to sketch the clouds as they were moving fast with the wind. I used a plain old “Crayola” black crayon to sketch and very lightly put some lines in for the field below. Then I scumbled on the watersoluble crayon starting with the sky. This is only the second time I’ve used these crayons; when I first bought them I hated them! They were bright in color and garish to me. But I’m going lightly and trying some layering of colors to see how it looks.
Water soluble crayons in a tin
Here’s my little black crayon and an “Altoids” tin filled with watersoluble crayons that I broke in half to fit them in. I keep a folded up piece of “Viva” paper towel in it with them.
Using the lid of the tin for watering down colors
Being that the colors ARE so vivid and strong I found it helpful to get my brush loaded with water then touch the tip of the crayon to pick up color and mix it into the wet brush on the lid. First I directly laid color on the paper and wet it, then I used this ‘brush to tip’ method (that’s what I call it!) to add more color.
Cloud studies and round brush I used
This is showing you the brush I used, just a simple round. (The sketch is unfinished here). I used it instead of the waterbrush because I wanted to get lots of water quickly and just scrub freely with the brush tip.
I’m still getting used to the crayons but I think I’m starting to like them more! I like how you can cover large areas quickly and when you wet them they really get juicy. I actually got some color on my hands (it got kind of messy!) so I was picking color up from my fingers with the brush! I think I’ll look for some other colors for landscapes in other name brands. Most of the crayons I have are Caran D’Ache.
Give them a try and let me know how you like them too!
Well my “Creative Journaling Spring 2011” class has ended after 4 weeks; it passed very quickly! Some of my students had never drawn anything before and others were used to doing some art or crafts. What I found the most interesting was how certain areas of what I taught really suited different students or ‘caught’ their imaginations. (Please CLICK on pictures to see them enlarged)
Great job Helen!
I’m happy to say Helen, who has never drawn before but is an EXCELLENT quilter, tried drawing and did quite well. I went over comparative measurements and gesture sketching with her and I think she’s getting the hang of it! She said she loved using the watercolor pencils. I can see her love of color in her quilts and could see she loved using color with the watercolor pencils.
Helen used her love of fabric and made a cover for her journal.
This of course, is Helen’s journal…she couldn’t help but get creative with fabric and cover her sketchbook journal that we made. She glued it on with rubber cement.
Linda and Paula working on poems and painting.
These ladies are very involved with their pages. Linda created some beautiful twig letters when we did creative lettering. I showed how to start with a simple outline then embellish your lines. Paula was inspired to write a poem during class after I introduced using poetry in your journal and gave a little talk about how I write a poem. Paula already liked writing poems so it really caught her interest and here is the wonderful poem she penned about our class!
“Challenges”
Painting what I see,
Seeing sky through the tree,
Climbing the incline,
Writing poetry with rhyme.
Enjoying Nature:
Through art and poetry,
With experimentation and camaraderie,
Is easy, fun, natural and free!
by Paula Minklai 2011
Paula followed just what I was encouraging by doing a little painting in her journal and incorporated the poem on the page. Her little painting was of an incline with trees on it and she likened learning to going up the incline, enjoying what we experience as we go. Great job Paula!
I showed the class how to use the twig look for letters, Linda did a great job!
I love the blue color of the twigs Linda used.
Please enjoy the rest of the photos taken over the last few weeks.
Linda working on watercolor pencil landscape in a circle.
Helen used the watercolor pencils so nicely here for the first time ever!
Creative Journaling class 2 - making coffee stained paper
Creative Journaling class 3 - drawing
I hope someday you’ll take a class with me! Sign up your email in the subscribe box to see when I’ll be teaching near you or just follow my posts about my journaling adventures!
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