I like to keep my field kit ready at hand to grab and it was a good thing today. I had a doctor’s appointment that I knew would be a long wait and lucky I had my kit. I threw a handful of 4×5 owl photos from my trip to England, into my bag; this will give me a chance to sketch some ideas for larger paintings. Here is the sketch of a young Spectacled Owl sitting on my gloved hand at the Kielder Water Bird of Prey Centre in Northumberland.
“Spectacled Owl Sketch”
I’ll be working on this some more and then post it, not sure if it’ll be watercolor or not. You can see a picture of me holding him on my “About Me“ page.
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.
It was a gorgeous day so after my walk with my dog Ginger I sat on the old picnic table in the center of the yard and played around with my watercolor pencils and watercolors. I still prefer to use my watercolors as I can make any color I like as to the watercolor pencils where you can sketch areas quickly but the color is so very different when you wet it. You really have to practice and maybe do some small test areas (as I did at the bottom of the page) to see what it will look like.
"May Field sketch page"
The first picture is my whole sketchbook page including some little sketches of an unfinished Barn Owl and the Tree Swallows who were swooping over me. I sat on the table in the middle of the yard and was attacked by darn black flies! You can read my note, I even left out a word I was SO distracted by them trying to bite me and fly into my eyes.
"May Field close-up"
There’s a close up of the field sketch, the thing I do like about watercolor pencils is that you can show your lines; it can be very expressive.
"May Trees"
This picture above shows a watercolor study of trees far off in my field. I was using just one waterbrush for this, as the paint dried fast working in the sun outdoors, I found that I could actually put some bright yellow dots over dark areas.
"Watercolor Pencil color test"
This picture is really what I set out to practice today, color swatches in watercolor pencils to match the grass I was seeing. I laid down one color and labeled it then tested putting one color over the top area and labeled it too. When you wet it the color changes quite a bit, that’s why I wanted to play around with it. You can hold your sketchbook up and look directly at the grass (or whatever you’re trying to match) in front of you, next to the sketchbook. Look back and forth and ask yourself if it’s too yellow?, too bright green? Does the chroma need to be dulled down? I find that the watercolor pencils are very bright in chroma, that’s why I’m practicing with them.
This coming Saturday April 4, 2009, I’ll be giving a free talk and demonstration about nature sketching in the field. It’ll be held at the Iroquois Wildlife Refuge from 1pm, at the refuge headquarters building, 1101 Casey Road. I’ll be showing my personal sketchbooks, art supplies I use in the field, how I carry things and demonstrating some basic drawing techniques along with how to make a simple field sketchbook for yourself! Please come and meet me and see my sketchbooks and be inspired to go drawing in the field after!
Here’s some links to past entries on my Nature Sketching blog from hikes around the Iroquois Wildlife Refuge.
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!
I’ve been trying to go back into my sketches I did on my trip to England and add some color or finish what I’ve started. On this little sketch I scribbled it out in 5min….and added some notes on color right on the page. So to keep practicing with my waterbrush and watercolors I added some color while looking at a photo I had taken that day. It’s different using the waterbrush alone and not an assortment of brushes. You have one tip to work with and a different kind of flow of water. I’m liking it more and more, but it still has it’s limitations, most especially when wanting to lay in a large wash of color. You have to mix a puddle of color first on your palette, squeezing the barrel to make drops of water come out.
In the morning looking out my window, I was greeted by an unusual sight, sheep in the courtyard! I guess it would be very frustrating to have a garden here as the sheep kind of wander where they like, especially if their gate is left open. The owners of Cote Howe B+B told me it was hard to protect the garden and they try to put fencing around it.
This morning I was leaving Rydal Water, I was sad to say good-bye. I went out behind the B+B to wait for my friend Gary to come, it was chilly and damp. I climbed up on top of a big wooden gate with huge stone posts and did a balancing act as I swung my legs to the other side. The stone wall is fascinating in itself to study, notice the huge cap stone at the end on the left…I don’t know how deep it goes into the ground, but I’m sure it goes down a few feet at least. This is how the stones were set for Stonehenge and the other stone circles around England and Ireland. The big stone here is used as the post, the wall being built up against it and also gates can be hung on it. The wall has a niche in it, I forget what the owner told me it was for? Does anyone know? Above you can see some beautiful forms of fungus’s and moss. It seems anything that wasn’t moving in England this fall, was covered with mosses! I’ll try to identify these later from my field guides, if anyone has some good identification, leave me a comment please! There were sheep in the field, an occasional hiker and just a beautiful view looking towards Rydal Water and the path I took yesterday for my hike. I sat on a gate and sketched the sheep and path view, the bunny is from when I was standing by the garden and saw him there. I sat so quietly sketching that the sheep came right up under me, when I spoke to her, she was very surprised to see me! That’s the neat thing about sketching in nature, you sit so quietly engrossed that wildlife will come around you.
Below you can see my original page, this is what I did as I sat on the fence, I painted it in while looking at the photos on my computer screen, using my tiny Altoids watercolor kit and just one waterbrush. You can see my tiny color tests in the spiral area of the paper.
Not too long ago I posted about my hike around Rydal Water in the Lake District of England. I did sketches as I went, some being quick as the day grew short and chilly. Below is a sketch I did with a permanent micron pen, I just couldn’t resist the view. I wrote notes on it about how I felt and even some abbreviations for color notes.
Last night, quite late actually, around midnight I found myself in front of the computer with a photo I had taken on the spot up on the screen. I used my tiny altoids watercolor kit and one #8 round brush to color in the sketch. I went over the words in a heavier line because they started to get lost. I think it’s a bit distracted looking if that makes sense, I think because I was in a lot of pain (neck and lower back! ohhhh!). But I wanted to do this up…I may go back into it with a micron pen to scribble in more forms. But at least I practiced with my colors and what I could produce with my tiny kit.
I have another post coming soon that I colored after also, of some sheep, a bunny and a little view of my path.
I hesitated to put this study up, it’s nothing gross to a naturalist, a dead mouse. Some people would say “oh, gross!” but all through time, man (scientists and artists in particular) has learned by studying from dead creatures. I love animals and things of our natural world and have a great respect for them even when dead. This mouse was very beautiful and being the curious naturalist that I am, I studied it, sketched it and painted it. It’s fur was soft and shiny, and it’s tiny paws amazing. Someday I’m going to have some pet mice again, (had them when a teenager) then I can study and paint them all I want.
The top painting was done first with a light pencil gesture sketch then I used watercolors, his whiskers being added with a Chinese white watercolor and tiny brush. The bottom left study was done with a brown micron permanent marker and the right one was done with non permanent brown ink, that I touched with a waterbrush to create value washes.
And now about Robert Burns, he was a poet from Scotland and they commemorate his life by having a Burn’s Supper on January 25th, there are formalities of speeches, whiskey toasts and haggis. Here’s a link to Wikipedia to learn more about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns_Day
And why I mention Robert Burns…Scottish poet? I heard a poem on Robert Burns day (Jan. 25th) and it was about a mouse and it went with my mouse study; here’s a link to UTube to listen to a reading of his poem “To a Mouse”.
I like that he calls the mouse lucky, because he doesn’t look back at his past or worry about his future, he lives in the here and now unlike man. Sometimes when I’m feeling overwhelmed or stressed out, I’ll look at my dog rolling in the grass, trotting freely around the yard and think…how lucky you are! To be as simple as an animal and live for just this moment.
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!
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