Another adventure into the snowy, cold back garden! I sketched this scene on January 17, 2023 then worked on the painting in February. I seem to be drawn to this Hawthorn tree and wall, it’s the same one I sketched last year in March on a rainy cold morning. I just love old Hawthorn trees because they usually twist and twine together and bend and grow shaped by prevailing winds.
Another thing I love in winter is the dry grasses; the color of it and how it lays in clumps, it’s strands making such interesting forms. I like looking at them to see where voles and mice have made entrance holes to hideaways. The other thing I love about this wall is all the moss of course! It’s a fun challenge to paint and I will be doing a lot more paintings and studies of it.
I used my very small sketchbook and drew the sketch above using a permanent ink pen. I did this from life, standing right in front of the tree and wall as you see in the previous photo. I did have my big mittens on with the flip back top so I could use my fingers, but it’s still a challenge to draw!
The picture above shows what I did next. I took the small original drawing (bottom right) and scanned it. Then I printed it out on plain computer paper, and looking at the photo I took, I drew darker lines on the printed paper and used white out to block lines that I didn’t want, like where I drew lines through a branch etc. Then I scanned that large one I edited and printed it again but at the size I wanted, a bit smaller.
Above it shows my light table, I put the scanned edited drawing on the light table and taped my watercolor paper on top. Then with the light on (of course) I traced with light lines using a pencil. Now it’s ready to use for painting! I like doing this because it’s always from my original sketch, not traced ever from a photo! A sketch/drawing will always have more character, not a perfect copy but maybe unnecessary details left out and others enhanced.
I decided to do this painting in gouache, as it’s my new medium and I love exploring it’s properties. I decided to use a thin base color of purply violet, I started light then darker layers to define the shaded areas.
This is a shot of my palette where I’m mixing my colors. I made it from the plastic cover of a notebook that I cut off and taped it onto mat or mount board. I have a travel palette that keeps the paint wet and soft just above this. I take a bit of wet gouache out and put it in little blobs on the mixing palette as I work, this keeps my travel palette cleaner. I especially do this with the white to keep it clean. As these little blobs dry out, I just rewet them as needed.
Above I mixed up some brownish purple color for the ground and wall dark areas in a little plastic dish. As I painted I used the waterbrush to blend out the edges to keep it soft, this is a technique I use in watercolors too.
Here you can see I started to put the background tree in and some of the distant wall. The thing is, I really was on the fence as to if I would put any background in at all! I can picture this tree and wall with just a white background, but it’s the landscape painter in me that wants to just put the whole scene in! Maybe someday I’ll repaint it with no background and see how it looks.
I added some sky and grass colors in the field behind.
Here I started to add the greens of the moss and bark on the Hawthorn.
Finally I start to add the greens of the moss on the rocks, trying to be careful and not painting areas of rocks with no moss.
And here I put more color onto the big Ash tree in the background, but try to keep it light. The lighting on my painting is terrible but I think I was painting at night time and this is using my cell phone.
Oh boy, look how crowded it looks on my table! This is working at a plastic 2’x4′ folding table in the living room, because that’s where the WOODSTOVE is!! haha. You can see my mixing palette and the paint container palette just above it, with my water just above that in a ceramic container. In the middle is the painting clipped onto my work board and above that is the printed out drawing I did. On the left is a photo reference for details and a bit for the color, and above that can you see the little study I did in my blog post “Stone Wall Studies in Gouache”. That is a great reference for color, moss and stones that I can refer to anytime.
I really liked how my painting was looking now, it’s really come to life for me, but a Hawthorn isn’t a Hawthorn without it’s berries! The tree had lots of dried out berries of deep red, just waiting for hungry Blackbirds or greedy Fieldfares! So I used an old trick by touching the end of my brush to paint on my mixing palette then made the round mark one at a time. I practiced on scrap paper first to see what color and thickness of paint I should use.
“Hawthorn and Mossy Wall”, gouache.
And here it is finished finally! I didn’t talk about putting the grass in front of the tree but that is an important part. As shown earlier, I put dark colors down first then this allowed me to use very light gouache on top to make grass strokes. It’s fun to arrange them so they look natural and they give a lot of movement to a drawing or painting. Then I added the dead leaves on the ground too.
I know I did this weeks ago when the snow was still flying, but today (April 2) I’m posting it after being outside in a sunny garden! We thought the sun would never shine again, it’s been so cloudy and grey! Soon we’ll be planting veg and flowers in the gardens and watching all the bees and insects come. I’d like to do some insect and wild flower studies and paintings, so we’ll see what comes this spring and summer!
(You can also follow me on Instagram as “mary_mcandrew_artist” and Facebook as “Mary McAndrew Painting and Illustration”, both of these I share more up to date progress of things I’m working on.)
Since moving to our new home here in the Scottish Borders, we’ve been graced with the presence of hares in our garden. They actually live all around us, running wild on the hills, grazing in the green sheep fields and sometimes spotted loping down the lane on the verge. But our first season here we kept noticing what appeared to be an old hare, like a wise soul, hanging around our garden even when we were outside working.
Hares are extremely timid and do not go near people as a rule. Our garden is still very wild and has lots of long grass. Our property is surrounded by fields used for sheep so it’s kind of like a little haven for hares and rabbits. I’m not so thrilled having rabbits, being an avid gardener of vegetables, fruits and flowers. We have a 2′ fence around the garden, that’s an easy hop for a hare, but they haven’t bothered. They are not little angels though, they seem to like trying everything out, snipping off flower heads and stems of so many things!
Baby Leveret
This past spring I found a nest of baby hares or leverets down in our paddock, tucked into long grass and daffodil greens. We left the whole area alone for quite some time, then weeks later we started to spot the growing babies here and there by the house. Every evening the mother would come and two leverets would run to her to nurse. The amazing thing is we have this very large window that looks right onto the driveway and she would meet them right there. At the time there was also a big rabbit population too and to see all this activity was like cuteness overload! But a few times the mother hare nursed her babies right in front of us, I was so excited to get some pictures! I also set up a wildlife camera and got some interesting footage of their night time antics too.
Below is a video clip of the mother with one of the babies. Please excuse the blurriness when I zoom in and out! I removed the sound because I was talking loud so Gary could hear me in the other room. Watch for the little baby rabbit in the background too.
Below is a little gouache painting I did of ‘our’ leverets. Click any picture to see it larger and clearer.
“Two Leverets”, gouache.
First I did two pages of pencil sketches working from photos I’d taken, then I drew over them with permanent ink, and erased the pencil. I like the softness and detail of shading with the pencil sketches but because they are for reference to be handled often, I ink them. The other reason is if I like one of the inked sketches I can then trace it onto watercolor paper using my light table. Now I’ll share with you the sketches and some stages of painting to get to the finished little painting above.
Pencil studies of leverets
From the above page of sketches, I used the top right sketch and the bottom left sketch for my painting.
Having a good wash!
Below is a page that I drew ink over the pencil and erased gently. Sometimes I like the way they ‘pop’ out after you erase away the pencil but it also removes any subtle hatching or shading which I like.
Inked over pencil studies of leverets
I transferred the drawings onto watercolor paper by tracing using a light table. I decided to use only gouache because I’m really trying to teach myself this new medium by practice.
It started out as two separate studies.
Above, I first put pale yellow green around and then pale green grass on top of that.
Then I added more grass, darker blades.
Above, I added more dark areas around so that I could add lighter opaque strokes over it.
I worked on more details on the hare.
I added more details then decided to combine the two studies into one painting.
You can see the actual size of the painting above. I left the hare in the back, less detailed and paler than the front one.
Hello my dear friends, did you miss me? Well life has just gotten so busy and time went right out the window, I’m sorry about that and feel guilty for neglecting my blog. But here I am to add something new and hopefully start sharing more too.
Have you heard of Inktober? It’s an artist’s self initiative to produce work for the month of October and all has to be ink. I’ve always wanted to do the self challenge because I love drawing with ink, but shied away because of the pressure to produce and being busy. Well I’ve decided (as we all should) to do it in my way, I’ll do some as I can and that’s good for me! haha.
So recently we had a surprise visitor, a tiny frog that came hopping out of my studio, all the way at the back of the house! Now I know this post is about toads but we’ll get to that shortly! We’re not sure if he came in when Gary had the door open to feed the hedgehogs or what but he needed to go outside. This summer I made up a little pond using a ‘tubtrug’ shallow plastic tub, filled with water, rocks and sticks and a tiny solar pump that squirts a bit of water to make some movement.
This is the little pond I made from a shallow plastic tub.
I’ll tell you what the birds have been loving it, the pheasants drink right at the sides and little birds land on the various pieces of old slate or the sticks to drink. I was excited to watch both the Robin and Blackbird take really good baths in it, splashing all around, it was great! The little water pump just makes a little ‘blurp’ or water repeatedly or when the sun is really bright it flows like a little drinking fountain; it’s supposed to be just enough to get the birds attention and keep the water circulating a bit.
Such a tiny frog, what was he doing in my studio?
So back to the frog, we took him outside (it was night-time) and put him in the pond and watched until I was sure he could also get out. You see even a frog can drown if it can’t get out of a tub type thing so be careful when you put water in containers outside. He did just as I expected and kept swimming around and around to the sides, which were too high for him. The way the rocks were situated he could easily have climbed on them and got out, but he had a one track mind to go around the edges. So I arranged some sticks and weeds at the edge so he had lots to grab onto at the rim, and he duly obliged by climbing up then out. Great, now I know if one goes in it can also get out.
Baby frog hopping away in the wet grass.
So on the way back into the house I stopped Gary just before he stepped on a little toad in the dark! This is a real wildlife night! So we took him to the pond, just so he would know about it, I took lots of photos then he got down in the long grass between some pots and it was goodbye! That’s him below, we shone two torches (flashlights) on him for the picture, it worked great.
Then another day I was in my back garden planting strawberry runner babies and I looked down and there is a decorative ceramic pot full of rainwater was a little toad, swimming and desperately trying to get out! Poor thing, I scooped him right out and took him to the pond area too, took some pictures and he warmed himself in the sun awhile before leaving.
Little toad had a nice dip then soaked in some sun before leaving.
So now you’ve patiently waited to hear how Inktober fits in here and to see some artwork! I’ll show you the two drawings I did and some of the stages as I worked, I took a few pictures with my cell phone. (By the way, I share a lot of pictures like this on my Instagram account “Mary McAndrew Artist” and on my Facebook page “Mary McAndrew Painting and Illustration”, you can easily follow me on those and see lots of photos as I draw, paint or see things outside in the garden or from walks.)
Toad #1 showing my pencil drawing and the start of the inking.
I want practice using my dip nibs and ink so that’s what I used here. The ink was a bit old so I struggled a bit until I added enough water to thin it again; I used Rapidograph waterproof ink.
Here I’ve gotten more of his bumps on.
You can see on this second picture I’ve put a bit of a light wash of ink, using a brush and water, down his arm, face and side.
Toad #1 finished
You can see I added more washes to the toad, finished his ‘bumps’ (I hate calling them warts, it’s not nice for the toads image!) and put some tone under him to set him off. I also used a white gel pen to put tiny dots on the bumps where needed.
Toad #2 at the drawing stage.
You can see in my drawing above of Toad #2 how I used simple ovals to place his feet and leg parts. I sketched simple ovals and circles to get him basically laid out and then could correct the proportions of him before adding details.
The drawing stage basically done.
Above you can see the drawing stage is done, toes are all on but not every bump.
I started adding the ink with a dip nib.
I’ve started adding the ink now with a dip nib, but this time I am using Higgins “Black Magic” ink. It said it’s waterproof but later I find this wasn’t totally true!
Then there’s always a chance of ink spots!
Ah yes, things were going ok but I was struggling with old ink with clumps, adding water and trying to wipe off my nib when needed. Somehow in all this I did manage to drip ink on the drawing, argh! I wasn’t too upset because this is just a study and I’m trying to be a bit loose with it.
I did some ink washes on the body to show form.
I found the ink was not so waterproof when I tried to do washes with a small brush, I had to pick up disturbed ink with a paper towel. So I was able to carefully go over areas with just a damp brush to get the ink to lift and make a wash. You can see I also start to add some black around his back foot, leg and front foot. I really like digging in with darks around subjects to set them off, you’ll see it works to my advantage next.
More ink around him done with the brush, ink and water for diluting. See how that big ink spot is getting covered?
Toad #2 finished!
Here he is finished, I layered the ink in and got nice and dark around his body; I like the way it makes him look like he’s coming out of the ground. I edited out the other sketch of a toads head on the paper, just for the final scan. The spot that was on his leg I was able to lift pretty much with water and paper towel. I added white gel pen to his bumps where it was shiny on the photo and finished adding his tiny bumps. Did you know each toad has different bumps? When I compare the two toads they looked so alike, but when you look close you can tell which was which by where their bumps were.
The color photo of this very gorgeous toad!
Above is the photo I worked from, I had to flip the photo to draw him facing a to the right. The photo and drawing also look a bit different because my drawing of him is turned a bit so he’s pointing up more, I liked it better that way. I wanted to share with you his gorgeous colors too and show you how lots of his bumps were a deep sandstone red, like jewels on the ground. It’s all about texture with a toad, that must be why I like drawing them!
I hope you enjoyed this post, as I said it’s been an awfully long time I’ve been away from it and will en-devour to share more soon! Please find me on Instagram at “Mary McAndrew Artist” and Facebook business page is “Mary McAndrew Painting and Illustration”. Please leave me some comments below about toads in your area, are they getting ready to hibernate?
I thought I’d show you the progress on my illustration of the ‘mouse family’ and some other little studies.
(click on them for larger view)
Work in progress, adding watercolor to the ink drawing.
It looks so different than it did as just a pen and ink drawing! They are starting to come to life more with the added color and fur. I’ve been so busy with other things that this illustration is going slowly. What I did here I did in one evening while watching a movie, if I could just sit down one more time it’ll be finished. So she says!
I’ve run out of opportunities to paint from ‘real’ colored leaves as they’ve all gone to the dark side in my yard, they’re all brown and blackish. But I did take lots of reference photos and that will serve me well as usual. I have a decision to make about the leaf in the mommy’s hand, it blends in with her and the baby maybe a little too much? I may add a purpley maroon, something with alizarin crimson? I’ll be adding just a touch more color to the leaves but I don’t want them to overwhelm the mice either. I do like the touch of blue in the background, it helps to show the mushroom better.
Before I forget I’ll show you a little study I did after Beatrix Potter’s mushrooms.
Watercolor study after Beatrix Potter
It’s from a painting with more mushrooms but this little one and the grasses were all I needed to study the colors she used. This was great for me to do before diving into the color of my painting, especially because I wasn’t working outside from real life. I just love and adore her paintings!
A small watercolor study of Moneywort done in springtime.
This is a small study I did in the spring of Moneywort. It likes to grow in wet areas so my land is filled with the stuff! Wonderful in late spring as it covers itself with little yellow flowers; my ditches along the lane seem to be filled with gold! I don’t know if the name refers to the yellow flowers (like gold) or the round leaves looking like coins? I found out something interesting, it’s a native to Europe and was introduced to America for use as ground cover and as an indoor hanging plant. Ha! I never would have thought to use it inside! Well anyways, I remember sitting in a lawn chair on a cold spring day, in a flooded area of my yard when I did this. I watched the little Nursery Web Spiders scampering over the water and over the plants. How great it is to study from life! That’s why I love Nature Sketching so much.
Study of a small wildflower (weed) that grows in my grass.
And this is another favorite ‘weed’ I like that grows around anything not moving! haha…It seems to grow at the edge of everything but I don’t mind, it has tiny pretty flowers and neat rounded leaves that remind me of a tiny geranium. I haven’t yet looked it up, guess I should. Oh by the way, the bees love it! Don’t go killing everything that grows in your grass, as long as it’s green it looks fine! Look closer at some of those weeds, they can be pretty and the bees need them.
I just thought I’d show these because I feel it’s important to always study from real life. Even if it’s a tiny study done quickly, it will help you to look closer at what’s really there, and you will remember it. Especially when it comes to color, the photos you take will not be as accurate as what your eye sees at the time, in that lighting.
Well I hope you enjoyed seeing my progress and other studies. I’ve been playing around with adding some new colors to my watercolor field palette, so we’ll see how that goes. Leave me comments if you like, I always love hearing what you think!
Click the picture above to see another cute mouse painting I did! If you hover over it (in my shop) you can see an enlarged image. Go to this link to see some other new children’s illustrations in my shop!
(click to see enlarged, hit ‘back’ arrow to return)
I know it’s not the time of year for Lightning Bugs (or Fireflies) to be out but thought I’d share this small illustration I finished recently. I’ve been working on studies of small, native plants (NY) to go with illustrations in the children’s books I’m working on and decided to put this Lightning Bug in here. It’s more realistic than the books will be but I really like how it looks like an ‘old time’ illustration. Many people have never seen this bug in the day, known for it’s magical blinking lights at night, but if you get to know it you may spot it in long grasses or hedges.
Though I painted this entirely in the studio all the studies had to be done in the field. Lately when I’ve been able to get out for sketching, I’ve taken my garden kneeling pad and a big garbage bag to sit on the wet ground to work. It really is amazing how many different small plants there are growing right under your feet!
Next post will be about the small plant studies I’ve done out in the wet lanes of spring. Click on the images below to see my prints, note cards and other items with this painting (you can add text to any of them!):
Posters / Prints in size you choose
Glossy Note Cards in two sizes
Stickers in many shapes and sizes (change text or remove if you like)
I love reading your comments as it really keeps me enthused! It’s been hard to get time to paint lately because I’m getting ready to downsize my house so I’ll be ready to move. Years of stuff is all I can say! I will keep posting as I have time so please bear with me, there is more to come!
This moth is a little watercolor painting I did on coffee stained paper (click it to see it larger and clearer). Using instant coffee to stain your paper is something I taught in my Creative Journaling class. It’s great to use lightly on your paper to make it look antique or like parchment. Here I just played with it like watercolor and brushed it around, then splattered water drops into it. Let it dry totally then you can draw or paint on top of it as I did. I have a few small sheets that I did at the same sitting, so I can grab one when I’m in the mood and use it. I lightly sketched with pencil first then just used burnt umber, burnt sienna, black and a touch of white for highlight. This was from a “Yellow Underwing” moth I photographed last year.
I have always loved the illustrations of Arthur Rackham and it’s the works he did using mostly brown colors that inspired me to work with brown tones alone. Click on any of the illustrations to see cards or gifts I created in my shop! There’s more items coming in the category Vintage Illustrations.
Flippant Fairies Floating Freely
Just look at how gorgeous this painting is!! Sigh…I love his work. (Sorry I don’t have a bigger copy to view) The background is just subtle tone, there’s a hint of tree tops below and then the sparrows come into view as they nonchalantly go about their business of preening. The branch is laid out as a perfect design element reaching across the paper and reaching up to lead your eye but not take you totally away from the subject of the fairies. Yes, those fairies, painted lighter than the rest to really make them stand out, aren’t they wonderful? Not having pointy ears, pointy eyes, pointy hair, sexy clothes and striped socks. Good God some of the awful modern day interpretations of what a fairy is is shocking! Just plain tacky and awful!
Oh but this is one of my favorites!
This is one of my favourites! SIGH….that’s how I feel when I look at work by another artist I revere. I love her dress, the attention to it’s detail but it doesn’t take over the attention of the piece, do you notice how the lower part blends into the tone of the ground and the skirt is the same as the background? It’s all married together, floating but on the same ground, do you know what I mean? Just like the tree roots coming from nowhere out of the paper and growing up into this tree that is alive. I love how he combined just enough elements that say man and tree at the same time, the fabric hanging adds a touch of color that picks up in her cheeks and it’s form adds a floating liveliness to the painting; movement. Not to mention the tenderness of the way they clasp hands….sigh.
Subtle tones means less distraction
In “The Man in the Wilderness” above, I love the way he draws his trees to be just like people, look at the ‘arms’ of the one in the background reaching up to the sky. For a child (or adult) reading the story this illustration would be something to pause over, study and discover. They’d see the obvious girl and elf and think about what they are doing but then they’d look at the trees and realize with delight they have faces and arms! Here again I like how he’s used such simple color to make this illustration, just a simple bit of red and gold on the elf to show the main subject. I can’t wait to use the card in my shop (click picture to see) as an invitation or birthday card, “Can we meet for tea?” “May your day be full of discovery”. Oh, how about a funny one for your friend…”I know you’re kind of different….but I like you all the same!” haha
The Queen floats in as if on air
This illustration shows use of line at it’s best, do you notice how in some places it’s thicker and heavy then it gets thin and light? This is very important in drawing, good drawing. This one is definitely more of a drawing than a painting, hardly any range of values used, quite flat. It’s all about the lines and what lines!, all swirling and curling, sweeping like there is a magical breeze blowing just her skirts and delicate lace veil. To give some depth and interest I like how he put the pale leaves and branches at the top then used a light similar design on her skirt in just the front.
I have wanted to do drawings and paintings starting with a freely painted base of brown or parchment colored paper for ages. The moth is my first one I guess, though I’ve done paintings before that are monochrome browns, (Autumn watercolor, Etain oil, Twilight oil) they were never started on a freely tinted paper. By that I mean a piece of paper where you just play with the color and use water drops and salt to add interest and you end up with something that in itself looks good. I’ve played with coffee staining before (as you can see on this post) but never got around to painting on them. So I’m hoping to do some more starting with small studies like this moth. Hope you enjoyed my discussion on using browns and the great Arthur Rackham! (more sighs) Oh, and I found an excellent, though old, article written about a show of his works in London in 2002 here on the “Telegraph”.
Below are a few items I designed with the Moth painting on it, please click the picture to see them in my shop. Enjoy and let me know if you’d like it on another item!
Try these stickers out, they’re glossy and I love ’em!
(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. 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, 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. 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! 😉 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, though it is sad, I did a watercolor study of a blackbird female that died after flying into our patio window. Just as other naturalists before me have done, I took advantage of having a real bird in front of me and did a study as quickly as I could. I find that if you love nature you can do this as a way of showing respect for the creature and not think of it as ‘gross’. Of course always be careful handling things like this by washing your hands after, putting it on plastic, not having food or drink nearby while working…just to be safe. I did notice a little tiny bug or two on it as I worked, which made me work even quicker, to get it out of the house sooner!
Watercolor study of Female Blackbird-stage 1
The picture above shows my pencil sketch and beginning stages of watercolor. I am laying in the golden color that I see ‘under’ the darker colors of the feathers.
Watercolor study of Female Blackbird-stage 2
Here I put dark tone on the tail and more darks on the head and some cool tones along the side of the breast to start to round the form.
Watercolor study of Female Blackbird-stage 3
Some more dark tones and details are laid in, feathers on ‘bottom’ wing.
Watercolor study of Female Blackbird-stage 4
At this stage I stopped painting feeling it was done, at least working from the ‘real’ model. I put a light wash of cool blue on the belly and added more color to the breast along with more details there.
Watercolor study with Blackbird
When I stood up and looked from further back, I felt it needed a more broad wash of dark on the birds right side so I just grabbed my brush and quickly washed some tone on, while standing up. Many times I like to work on my watercolors from a standing position to keep them loose and free; if it’s a detailed painting I like to either start it while standing to have a loose feel, or at least finish it this way. I could add some loose color around the bird, but I just didn’t feel like adding to it.
My set up to add final details from computer
So on another day I set up to touch up details using my photographs of the dead bird from my laptop. I used my field pan of watercolors and brushes and a magnifying glass to help me see details.
Watercolor study of female Blackbird - stage 6
At this point I decided it was finished. To be honest, I wanted to go back and ‘scratch’ out highlights along the legs to show their shine and make them stand out from the dark background, I also wanted to add grasses around the bird, but I’ve had too many other things to work on and just didn’t get time. So it’s DONE.
Blackbird male
I don’t want to leave you with a dead Blackbird, here’s two photos of a healthy male so you can see how nice they look, their song is even nicer!
Blackbird male
As a side note, the Blackbird (UK) is in the Thrush family just as my American Robin is. For my American readers you’ll notice a very close silhouette to our Robin, and the song, though different is beautiful as thrush songs are. The male Blackbird is ‘black’ with a yellow beak, the female looks, well like my painting, brown with speckles on breast.
This watercolor was commissioned by a lady for her husband’s 80th birthday! He loves groundhogs (just like me) and she really liked the groundhogs I had sketched on my blog this past summer, so she asked me to do a painting. Here’s the finished painting and below it I’ll share the stages of painting as I worked on it, along with how I changed or corrected areas as I went.
my set up 1
Above is my set up, an artists’ table easel box type thing that you can put oils paints in underneath, I have it filled with color pencils at the moment. I like it because you can change the angle to work on, I altered it though by drilling holes right up the front panel so I can change the height of the little shelf that you put your painting on while you work. (Yes, I love using my power drill!)
my watercolor pan palette
When I work on little watercolors, I like to keep my palette of colors close to the work. The paint dries out quickly in the tiny brushes so it helps to have it all close by. I set my pan of colors on a little wooden box and I can keep other supplies in here instead of all over my table. This pan is also what I use in the field, I have so many colors in it, I really don’t need to set up my big huge palette that I use in my studio for big paintings. When I worked on the painting, I had several pictures of groundhogs to the left of it for my reference, I used sticky tack (blue tack) to hold things in place on the Plexiglas surface.
my set up 2
I really created this set up because I wanted to work where the wood stove was, right in the middle of my living room. You can see the cold snow outside my window! So it’s like my little studio island, a plastic table 4′ x 2′, complete with laptop, small lamp, bundles of color pencils and some other piles of ‘stuff’. (ahmm…there’s a dark chocolate bar hidden in the box too, well you know, gotta keep the ‘ol strength up!)
groundhog 1
This is the first stage of the painting, a light pencil sketch that I lighten first by tapping over it with a kneaded rubber eraser. Before I started I decided to make this a 5 x 7″ painting to fit a standard mat, so I lightly trace the inside of an 8 x 10 mat (5 x 7″ opening). Then I wash in a simple background of trees and start to place the long grasses and dandelions I want around this plump little groundhog.
groundhog 2 blocking shape
I like to try to keep some spontaneity in my paintings especially in the backgrounds. Here’s a little trick you can try to keep it loose while protecting areas; I grab a piece of paper or plastic to block or protect an area. This piece was just the right curve for his back, when it’s covered I can very freely stroke my brush right over the area with out it looking contrived and stiff.
groundhog 3 blocking shape
You can see above the protected area of his back.
groundhog 4
In “groundhog 4” I have laid in some light body washes and beginning some fur areas, starting on the darker areas first. Notice I have left a light ‘cut out’ looking edge to him, this is so I can go back later and stroke color into it to make it look like fur, but also he’ll stand out a bit from the background. I also started to push the darks around the grass blades in the front left.
groundhog 5
In “groundhog 5” you can see I darkened around the dandelions, added some grasses in front and also added some more tone and fur strokes on his body. Keep looking for the dark and light areas of his body; sometimes you show this by adding strokes or by adding whole washes to an area. If you look at his tail here I want to point out that I didn’t just paint in a tail shape, I put dark bits around where the grass went over it and it looks much more natural.
groundhog 6
In “groundhog 6” you can see I have put a light wash of green in the background, then washes of brown in the foreground. I then added more grasses and darks around the dandelions, foreground and his body. I developed the arm and shoulder area more now, also added more to the head.
groundhog 7
I developed the grasses around him in “groundhog 7”, pushing the darks in places.
Now I’ll show you some close up pictures of parts of the painting as I did corrections. I find it interesting to look back on how I changed things and I know my readers really like to see this, you can learn a lot by looking at how another painter reworks things to correct them.
correcting the back 1
When I painted more of the grasses in I was able to see his back silhouette better; I then realized that it looked too straight. So I gently re-wet the area along the edge (above) and rubbed a bit with my brush to lift the color then I blotted it with a clean paper towel. I repeat this as many times as nessesary to lift what I need to, you can’t always lift everything though!! Take care also not to lift other areas.
correcting the back 2
To reshape the back I carefully put down the dark green grass colors further out from the original back line. (above) Then you have to soften where needed so it all looks ‘right’ together.
Below I show a close up of an area that when I thought I had finished the painting, I looked back and decided to fix. That blade of grass pointing at his head looked ok in the beginning when it was lighter, but now was too strong.
blades of grass 1
Below is the area that I changed.
blades of grass final
Here’s some close ups of the head as I changed it. The mouth I found difficult to do, it was a give and take between showing details and sort of softening them, but then that’s the essence of painting! Notice the careful biulding of darks on the head to shape it’s 3 Dimensional feel, the changing of the black area of the mouth and the developing of the dark area under the jaw.
Head close up #1
Head close up #2
Head close up #3
#4 Final head close up
I ended up going over the entire head at the end and added darks here and there…sculpting until it looked just right.
Once again here is the painting finished and ready for it’s new owner!
"Groundhog" finished
The original is sold but SHOP for gifts, note cards, prints, t-shirts etc with this image on it in my Zazzle shop! Go to www.zazzle.com/marymcandrew*This will take you to my shop where my artwork and designs are listed, go to the Small Mammals folder to find the groundhog designs or just type Groundhog into the search box. You can add your own text to customize gifts! If you want it on something you don’t see, just email me to ask!
Exciting news! Garden 91, a non profit magazine in Taipei, Taiwan has featured my artwork and nature sketching blog in their magazine!
They are a non profit organization that concentrates on the value of nature, the true meaning of design, the life of aging and the vision of education. Does this sound like me?? YES!! The director contacted me to tell me that my blog and what I write and feel about nature is why they wanted to use my work. You’ll see several pages below that are right from my sketchbook pages I’ve posted in the past. Their island was hit by a typhoon in August of 2009 and they want to reveal more stories about people aware of nature and wildlife. They print about 1,000 copies and distribute them to upscale coffee houses, schools and libraries. I apologize ahead of time that I can’t translate the article, it’s written in traditional Chinese! But enjoy the pictures anyways! Here’s a link to their blog if you’d like to have a look, though it’s all in Chinese have a look around: http://garden91.pixnet.net/blog
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