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 * Home
 * More About Me
 * Red-shouldered Hawk Territory
 * Discover Birds Activity Book
 * Discover Birds Program






TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2011


A PEEK AT ONE OF MY CURRENT ART PROJECTS


I have several art projects underway that have demanded my attention and caused
me to temporarily disappear from blogging.  But this is only a pause and means I
have lots to share with you soon, including new paintings, new note cards, an
exciting book review that I've been eager to share with you, and a children's
activity book that I am creating in cooperation with the Tennessee
Ornithological Society.

Below is the two-page center spread illustration for the activity book compiled
from my many experiences observing the majestic sandhill crane.  I loved
creating this illustration!


The booklet will be introduced at Tennessee's Sandhill Crane Festival sponsored
by the Tennessee Ornithological Society and TN Wildlife Resources Agency.  The
festival will be held at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge and Birchwood, TN, January
14th and 15th, 2012 and promises great entertainment and thousands of sandhill
cranes.  Mark your calendars for this event!



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Labels: activity book, illustration, sandhill cranes, TN Sandhill Crane Festival



TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2011


THE SKETCHBOOK AS A MAP FOR YOUR PAINTING


A sketch is the artist's road map, like a tool for planning your journey.
 Besides being its own form of art and a record of observations, turning to your
sketchbook to work out decisions about your painting before you start can be
invaluable.


Before I started my painting of this Northern Harrier, I had a number of
decisions to make.  As soon as I received the request for this painting to honor
a friend, I had a good idea of the posture I wanted the bird in for this
painting, and I also had an idea of the way the background would look--open
rolling fields common to east Tennessee. Decisions about color, values, and a
landscape arrangement that would best highlight this bird were next.  To help, I
turned to my sketchbook for color mixing and to make value studies.


Above left, you see a pencil sketch of the values, relative lights and darks for
the landscape, and to the right another sketch of the same arrangement using
watercolor. It was this little sketch to the right that gave me the first
glimpse of the scene I had in mind.  I was still exploring colors at this point,
deciding whether to use Payne's gray more prominently, or to remain with French
Ultramarine, my favorite blue for mixing with Burnt Sienna to create neutrals.
 You can see some of the neutrals possible in the first image above, along with
a nice selection of autumn greens made with Quinacridone Gold and French
Ultramarine.  Below, another series of color explorations with Payne's Grey on
watercolor paper.


In the end, I settled on the colors that were the most pleasing to my eye and
familiar to me, Winsor Newton's French Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna,
Quinacridone Gold, and a touch of New Gamboge.  All other colors you see are
made from this primary palette.


Unlike other hawks that hunt from a perch, the Northern Harrier hunts for small
mammals gliding low over open fields to find its prey, aided by its acute
hearing. Historically this species was especially impacted during the spraying
of DDT in the 1970's. Northern Harriers have a unique and spectacular flight
display called, 'sky dancing', involving high speed climbs, dives and spiraling
loops to attract their mate. While the nesting of other hawks failed due to egg
shells too thin to incubate, Northern harriers were so weakened by the pesticide
that they could not carry out their elaborate courtship displays and breeding
almost completely stopped. It took many years longer for this species to recover
after the banning of DDT in this country.


Though considered stable or slightly declining currently, Northern Harriers are
impacted by the loss of wetlands, prairies and changing farming practices.

11 x 14 watercolor on Arches 140# coldpress paper.

Links and resources:

To see the first post on this painting visit:  A Northern Harrier Hunting
More about the use of your sketchbook in creating a painting in:  The Richness
of Watercolor
You may also enjoy visiting my Purple Martin painting, showing a different
approach to painting a bird in its habitat.


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Labels: color mixing, landscape, northern harrier, planning your painting,
sketchbook practice, value studies, watercolor



FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2011


A NORTHERN HARRIER HUNTING


Not all paintings happen with ease.  I can often observe a bird, its behavior,
its habitat, and have good reference photos from which to work before I begin.
 But that wasn't the case with this painting.  

I have always enjoyed painting the close-up views of birds that give you not
only a sense of its habitat but also some beautiful detail.  But close-up views
are not the way we generally see a Northern Harrier, a beautiful raptor species
in a family all its own, that hunts in a low glide over open fields and is one
of the few birds that can hover over its prey for a prolonged period before
striking. If you once see this bird in action, you will thrill every time you
encounter one.  

A number of years ago, while living in a rural area of east Tennessee, I had the
special experience of seeing Northern Harriers that were wintering over.  Every
evening I took great enjoyment in watching with binoculars as they glided over
our fields hunting before roosting for the night.  This has endeared this bird
to me as one of my favorite species, one that stirred my excitement forward and
lead me to to spend more time observing birds.

Above you see a collection of some of my explorations before I actually painted
this painting.  These included value sketches of the landscape's foreground,
mid-ground and background, experiments with shapes in the design arrangement,
and trying out colors and color-mixing while I settled on the best color
combination to represent the scene and season.


My first challenge was the bird.  Northern Harriers are just arriving in
Tennessee now, not to mention they are difficult to observe and photograph.  You
generally have to know where they roost and hunt in order to be productive in
capturing them.  So, instead, I searched the internet and my books, finding a
variety of images, both male and female, to help me with the details as I
created the hovering posture of my subject. Above you see my initial sketches of
the bird, a male on the left, female on the right. And below, a 2009 sketch I
also referenced that I created after observing a Northern harrier hunting at
Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin.


Once I settled on the posture of the bird and his location in the painting, my
next focus was the landscape and the values that would help make my subject the
center of focus.

Next: Sketches and color exploration
Other sketches of a Northern Harrier in flight
More about the use of sketches in creating a painting in:  The Richness of
Watercolor



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Labels: landscape, northern harrier, planning your painting, sk



SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2011


PART II--A BOOK, A TEACHER, AND INTUITIVE LEARNING


Have you ever wanted to do something so badly, that you were equally afraid you
couldn't?  That pretty much sums up how I felt about becoming an artist.  And
just to set that worry straight for any readers that feel something similar, if
you love art and have always wanted to draw or paint, you already are an artist.
 The becoming part is simply a matter of becoming familiar with the medium and
developing skills through practice.  


Even though I was disheartened by my initial class, my interest in watercolor
did not lessen.  I browsed the local art store for books and magazines to aid my
attempts to paint.  It was during one of these visits that I found the treasure
that shaped my art endeavors for the next ten years, a book called, Watercolor:
 A New Beginning, by Ann K. Lindsay.


I opened the book while still in the store, as we often do, to leaf through it
to see what it had to say.  I found topics like, "Being of Two Minds",
describing the rational vs. the intuitive mind and how these two parts of our
brain learn and approach things differently; "Managing Your Inner Critic"
suggesting ways to manage your inner fear and why that critic develops inside;
and, "Just in Case", addressing feelings of fear and resistance while trying
demonstrations in the book.  Ann writes:  "Art is our heart coming right out of
us onto the paper, into the world; no wonder we feel so vulnerable and easily
discouraged".


This was the book and the instructor I had been looking for.  In the book, I
found step-by-step instructions that actually started at the beginning with
putting paint in the palette, suggesting inexpensive ways to get started.
 Subsequent chapters demonstrated ways to play with pigment and water on paper,
covered the basics on colors explaining primary, secondary, tertiary and neutral
colors, and progressed to painting a subject using values with tips on drawing,
and adding backgrounds to your paintings.


Exploring how different pigments react to salt.

This book, with its nurturing and encouraging approach, gave me the courage to
feel excited about watercolor, again. So excited in fact, I traveled from east
Tennessee to upper state New York the next summer, in 2000, to take what I
consider to be my first watercolor class, this time with Ann Lindsay. This
journey was an adventure and magnificent in so many ways. But most of all, I
want to say a little more to you about that tenderness we feel as beginning
artists, a feeling that can often hold us back.


Even in the gentle and nurturing environment of a class of true beginners with
an intuitive and mindful instructor, my first attempt to put my art out into the
world in that first day of class was truly frightening.

In my journal I wrote:
July 31st, 2000:  [Monday--day one] "I had a panic attack--throat closing,
flushed, tears--over the show-and-tell thing we did after the first exercise
today.  How could I be self-conscious, uneasy over splashing color and water on
paper in no particular pattern? It is beyond my understanding sometimes, what
sets off my anxiety."

August 4th: [Friday night, as the week of classes ended] "I have enjoyed this
tremendously....Ann says, art is the soul coming out on paper. Maybe that's why
this art is so very sensitive an issue for me. There aren't too many ways that I
share my soul with others....When I shift to expressing who I am inside, talk
about me, whether in a novel or a watercolor or sketch or photograph, that is a
very sensitive moment. I feel vulnerable and exposed. Hence, my panic attack on
the first day of class. It was less about what we were looking at, what I had
created on paper, and more about how much I have always wanted to do this."

And to all of you artists out there--keep painting!



Links and Resources:

Part I to this post:  Books, A Difficult Start and A Passion for Watercolor


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Labels: Ann Lindsay, book review, inner critic, inspiration, watercolor



MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011


BOOKS, A DIFFICULT START, AND A PASSION FOR WATERCOLOR


I love books in general, but art books rank high on my list these days.  Though
I've had some of the books you see for a while, in the absence of time and
opportunity to travel away from home to take art workshops lately, I've added a
few more to my shelves as a way of making sure there is plenty of creative
stimulation available for art practice.  


Why do I travel away from home to take workshops, you might ask?  Because, along
with the opportunity to learn from a talented instructor, I get the advantage of
a vacation-like atmosphere that is nurturing, focused on something I love, and
that takes me completely away from my day-to-day responsibilities.  It is
similar to the renewing affect of vacations in general, but with the added
benefit of time solely devoted to watercolor play and the extra stimulation of a
talented instructor and creative community energy.  In fact, a special book and
travel to an out-of-state watercolor workshop set the stage for my journey into
watercolor after serious beginner discouragement.

I came into the world loving art and drawing, but watercolor was not a medium I
was exposed to at a young age.  I just admired it greatly.  Obviously the desire
to create art was re-kindling in me in 1999. My time and energies had been
caught up in volunteer writing for professional projects in the years preceding.
 But as I freed myself from those responsibilities, my urge to return to art
strengthened and I signed up for a local "Drawing on the Right Side of the
Brain" workshop.  


I was nervous early in those class sessions, as though I had lost all confidence
in my drawing ability and needed someone to tell me I could still draw after so
many years of neglect. Above and below, you see portraits that I sketched in
class.  They were drawn from photos turned upside down, a maneuver that
encourages the artist's brain to stop thinking in symbols (drawing what you
think should be there) and to see the linear and spacial relationships more
clearly.  This was heartening and amazing, both to see my own drawings, and the
others produced by people who had never attempted to draw.  


Encouraged, I ventured into my first watercolor class, a weekly three hour class
of "multi-level students, from beginners to advanced" held at a local art supply
store.  I was the only beginner in the class.  The other students had taken from
this instructor previously, had wonderful things to say about her, and had
sophisticated projects already underway.  I don't think the instructor was
prepared for a person at the very basic beginner level like me, one who had not
quite grasped how one was supposed to arrange tube paints in the palette and mix
them with water.


Above, four value studies varying placement of dark and light values.  A bit of
a mess.

The class turned out to be a disaster for me, though in hindsight, I'm glad I
had this experience. Perhaps because she had run out of suggestions for what I
should do next, in the last hour of one of my classes mid-way through the
course, I was instructed to create the value studies you see above, varying the
placement of dark and light with each repetition. Without any introduction to
values and how they are used, I not only failed to understand the point of this
exercise, I felt like the child who'd been sent to the corner to do busy work.
 Needless to say, this was not fun. I came away from the experience so bored and
bewildered that I did not finish the classes. I closed my palette, concluded I
couldn't do watercolor, and didn't open my palette again for another year.

It is this type of experience, technique before play, that often leads people to
believe that watercolor is such a difficult medium. It's not. It's delightful,
fun and easy to love!

Next: Reviving my watercolor passion--A Book, A Teacher, and Intuitive Learning



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Labels: inspiration, passion for watercolor, watercolor books



TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2011


SKETCHING HUMMINGBIRDS IN FLIGHT


I have had the pleasure of enjoying plentiful hummingbirds during this migration
season.  What a joy!  Hummingbirds from the northern states and Canada begin
migrating through Tennessee as early as July, but the largest numbers of
migrants have been moving through this month.  So I've taken this opportunity to
sit outside with them and enjoy them as often as I can and last weekend, I tried
sketching them while I watched.       

Ruby-throated hummingbirds beat their wings at a rate of 40-80 beats per second,
and their flight speed varies from 30 to 50 mph.  Add to that, the fact that
they are high-tempered and very territorial when it comes to their nectar source
and you have a busy subject.  Fortunately, they do hover in place from time to
time, perch, and sometimes settle down for brief periods to drink.  With as many
as a dozen visiting the feeders at once, there was no shortage of  replacement
subjects when the one I was sketching disappeared.        

It was also fascinating to notice how my approach to sketching changed during
this experience, as memory and focus adjusted from sketching a still subject to
trying to capture one that is constantly in motion.  My focus gradually began to
narrow as effort continued, and I settled on capturing simple lines, like the
curve of the back, the shape of the tummy, the spread of the tail feathers, or
the line of the top of the head.  


It is while you're sketching that you begin to "see" differently, turning off
symbolic memory and concentrating on what you're actually seeing right in front
of you.  And then your focus naturally zooms in, discarding unnecessary details,
getting down that shape you've been searching for, no matter how many tries and
birds it takes to capture it.  While doing this you are relying heavily on your
visual memory and your mind begins to fine-tune its focus, simplifying shapes to
accommodate the speed with which you're observing.       

After I had sketched for more than an hour, I took a break and picked up my
camera and snapped images, paying little attention to light or focus, simply
trying to capture some of the same flight shapes I had seen while sketching.  
When I came inside, I created a digital file of a six of these images, set them
into motion as a slide show on my laptop, and sketched them while the slide show
was in motion.  I was surprised and delighted at how easy it became to capture
the shapes at this speed, a speed far slower than the birds, themselves.  At the
slide show speed of several seconds per image, sketching seemed effortless!  I
would not have felt that way prior to my attempt to sketch the hummers outside.
   




It is hard to explain the satisfaction I felt after this effort.   Not only did
it provide a wonderful opportunity to see hummingbirds differently, it was a
discovery in learning, in understanding not only the abilities within the mind
to adjust visual memory to what is needed to capture the subject, but the
amazing amount of information that is gleaned while experiencing a subject with
that kind of focus. The last image you see above is my favorite.  Even though it
was sketched from the slide show, it was sketched with an ease I had not
experienced before, and that was fun!  That's when I realized how much I had
learned!


To see more of my hummingbird sketches and paintings, visit:  Hummingbirds 

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Labels: sketching birds, sketching hummingbirds, sketching in nature



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2011


WATERCOLOR CARDS FOR HANDY REFERENCE



It's always fun to try out new pigments.  I've had several in mind for a while
that I've noticed in other artist's palettes.  Anytime you open an art book from
your shelf or attend an art class, you will usually discover the author/artist's
palette selection and a discussion of warm and cool colors.  Many artists have
more than one grouping of colors they enjoy using, depending on the subject and
the season.  Others use the same color wheel most of the time.  This is a matter
of preference and what appeals to your eye.  
Having a palette already selected before you begin painting makes decisions
easier while you work.  And trying out new pigments is a bit like holiday magic.
 This week, I visited Jerry's Artarama and returned home with two new brushes
and four new tubes of paint, all Winsor Newton.


Above, Winsor Newton squirrel mop for juicy washes (larger brush), and a round
#3 sable for detail work.  Tube paints:  Perylene Maroon, Cobalt
Turquoise, Antwerp blue, and Cadmium Yellow.



Though Winsor Newton tube paints are now marked with letters signifying their
translucent characteristics, for example, "T" for translucent, O for Opaque and
"S's" for those in between, such as SO (semi-opaque), I like to display my
pigments on a handy card so I can see the pigment qualities in an instant.
 Different brand pigments by the same pigment name can be very different in both
brilliance and translucence.


Above you can clearly see the opaque characteristics of WN Lemon Yellow and WN
Raw Sienna.  You can also see that Van Gogh Raw Sienna is a different shade of
pigment when compared to the WN watercolor pigment by the same name.



The "cards" I use are simply the back side of a used piece of 140# coldpress
watercolor paper torn into same-size strips.  On one side create a black
permanent magic marker strip.  If you paint across this strip and the pigment
allows you to see right through to the black, you have a very translucent
pigment that will create wonderful glazes.  If the pigment is visible on top of
the black strip, you get a sense of the granular quality and the opaqueness of
your pigment, qualities that add texture and variety to your work.



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Labels: translucence, watercolor pigment qualities, watercolor reference cards,
Winsor Newton



MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2011


SUNFLOWER STUDY II--A FUN EXPERIMENT


What do you do when you're feeling frustrated with something that's happening in
the midst of your painting?  The best suggestion I have, stop right there and
step back. Leave the painting alone for a few hours or a few days. Work on a
different painting, or do something entirely different, and come back to it when
you and your eyes are fresh again, and see what you think.  

This crossroad has happened to me many times.  Sometimes I succeed in walking
away, other times I don't.  What is happening in that moment of frustration, at
least one possibility--we are too "close" to the work, literally and
emotionally.  Our left brain, with its specialty in technical skills, may have
become too engaged in what it thinks "should" be happening, and is failing to
let the painting create its own unique possibilities.

Below, you see, Sunlit Afternoon, a painting that I almost tossed in a moment of
frustration.  This painting has been one of my favorites since I painted it five
years ago.  Now, I would paint the adult whooping crane differently, showing
more plumage details and shading, but I still love the interaction the painting
expresses and its overall affect.  


In order to finish this painting, I had to set it aside for several days and
come back to it.  I was having trouble with the water's edge, thinking it was
too dark, and in the moment of frustration, not satisfied with any change I
made.  Later when I came back to it, I found myself saying, now what was it I
disliked so much?


The sunflower painting you see in the top image began with a variegated wash of
yellows with one of the pigments being yellow ochre (above left).  Some pigments
have a grainy texture, and with the addition of salt, will create large patterns
of moved pigment, depending upon the wetness of the area. Even though I love
that feathered area created by the salt, as I was beginning to paint more detail
in the sunflower, I decided the painting was much to busy. I concluded that the
light salted area competed with the main subject, the sunflower and butterfly.
Now, I'm not so sure. This would have been a good time to pause and wait.  But I
didn't.  I continued, adding color in some areas and lifting color in others.

Below, is the part of the painting I like the most, largely because it's fresh
and clean, and I like the colors.  Cropped a little differently, it could make a
small painting on its own.


And below, you see the area I like the least, the area I couldn't leave alone.
 My primary reason for disliking it, is that I was indecisive while working on
it.  I added blue to the salted whites, changed purple shadows to blue, and then
had some indecision about the colors used around the edges of the sunflower
petals. If I tuck it away for a while, gain more distance from the experience,
and look at it again later, my attitude toward it may change.


Sunflowers are fun to paint and there are any variety of ways to paint them.
 Plus, they are abstract in shape, and reflect many different colors in those
withering petals--purple, magenta, burnt sienna, brown, violet.  Because of
these qualities, clear, dynamic colors and the sparkle of light are the elements
that provide the most excitement.  I haven't tossed this painting, but I will
try another one, hoping that all I learned from this one will coming tumbling
out onto the paper in the next.

Not every painting we begin makes a great painting, but there is plenty to value
in the experience of painting itself.  Every time I paint, I learn, gain
confidence, get to know the pigments and how they interact with water and paper,
and enjoy all the surprise discoveries that make watercolor such an exciting
medium.

Links and Resources:
My first sunflower study can be found here:  Sunflower Study  
For more posts on practice and confidence visit:  The Illusive Nature of
Confidence and Kindergarten Efforts.
For a discussion on scrubbing or lifting paint, visit:  Sketching a Limpkin




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Labels: learning as you paint, salt and watercolor, sunflowers, watercolor,
watercolor studies



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011


HUMMINGBIRD STUDIES--MOVEMENT AND LIGHT


I will just about come up with any excuse to sit outside with hummingbirds this
time of year.  Since tropical storm Lee has pushed rain and colder air our way
in Tennessee, there has been an increased mob of hummingbirds gathered around my
five feeders. They are especially active in the early morning and late evenings,
just before departing to continue their migration as night migrants.  

Yesterday evening, while refilling a couple of feeders, I marveled as all
feeders were occupied with 3-4 hummers at a time.  No sooner did they finish
their drink, than they were back to fanning tails, chirping and giving chase.
 Hummingbirds in flight are not easy to see for more than a few seconds, let
alone, sketch, so I rely on my camera to give me details about posture and
plumage.  


Even using my camera (Canon Rebel xi with 300 mm zoom lens) is a delightful
challenge.  It requires patience, anticipation and steady nerves.  But what it
also gives me is a closer view.  My current binoculars will not focus within the
shorter distances needed for sketching, so my camera serves as a substitute, and
occasionally gives me a nice in-flight reference image.  

Right now I am delighting in watching hummingbird behavior.  Mature birds and
juveniles behave very differently.  When trying to capture these birds in a
sketch, it is also a challenge to try to capture the light and movement which is
so much a part of the personality of hummers.  So after hours of watching them,
I enjoy trying to capture what I've internalized in a sketch.  This is resulting
in a series of hummingbird studies. I could also label them studies of movement
and light.



I am sure that each study will continue to look very different, as these two do.
 These are playful experiments.  My challenge is to not 'mess' with what's
happening on the page, but let the water and pigment move freely.  While
painting, I'm focusing on the experience of hummingbirds, rather than the detail
of the bird.  That's my goal, at least. Those beautiful details are hard to
resist!


Bloom or watermark created by dropping clear water into pigment on paper.



A different watermark created by dropping clear water into an area that has been
salted.




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Labels: hummingbirds, movement and light, watercolor birds, watercolor play,
watercolor studies



MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2011


AUGUST DEMONSTRATION--WET-IN-WET CONEFLOWERS


I was delighted when I received a comment from Cora, after my post,
Coneflowers--Wet-in-Wet and the Colors of White.  In her comment she told me she
had practiced painting white coneflowers using the August demonstration example
and posted them on her blog.


Below you see the example that she liked best, her first try.   I think it is my
favorite too, because of that nice variation in the center where she dropped
color into color, and the lovely whites that resulted.    


Seeing her blog post excited me for several reasons. First of all, she tried my
practice example and shared it, and that was fun.  Secondly, when I read her
profile description, I discovered that she is a newly practicing artist in the
Netherlands, and she intends to post her efforts no matter what the results.
Wow, I thought.  That takes courage--the courage to create your own stage and
build a community for practicing art.  I know from my own experience, that every
effort will not only strengthen her skills, but each time she posts her work,
her art practice will benefit in boldness.  One of the many pleasures of
blogging today is that we have a ready-made community of individuals who are
also learning, practicing, enjoying creating art and sharing it.  It's a great
opportunity for both motivating and encouraging our art practice.  .  


Because I haven't had an art class vacation in the past two years--that is,
leaving town for a week and doing little else but painting watercolor--seeing
Cora's practice examples also reminded me of one of the fun moments in art class
that I've missed lately, the sharing time when everyone shows their efforts
after a work session.  These were moments of enjoyment and satisfaction for me.
 I always marveled at how beautiful everyone's work was, the uniqueness of each
person's style, and easily found something to admire in each person's efforts.  
  

A coneflower sketch I created in 2000.    

This reminds me to say to you what I often have to say to myself.  When you are
looking at your finished work and don't find yourself totally loving it, focus
in on an area of the painting that attracts you, that you particularly like and
notice why it appeals to you.  Then find the area that doesn't appeal to you and
decide what you don't like about it.  Think about what you would like to see
happening differently there. Remember that the special value in those 'dislike'
areas is the learning that took place while you were creating it.


And all this information will be available to you the next time you paint!

August demonstration:  Wet-in-Wet and the Colors of White
Another post on the value of practice, Practice is the Magic of Talent.

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Labels: art demonstration, painting white, practice, wet-in-wet



TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2011


EASTERN SCREECH OWL--THE FINISH


Sometimes art work gets finished in an orderly fashion.  You move through the
work from start to finish in a steady progression.  At other times, the project
gets set aside for many different reasons, mostly a shortage of time,
interruptions, something else inspiring happens, or an indecision may stall the
finish.


In the case of this owl, it was a persistent indecision about those eyes.  When
you wake a sleeping screech owl, they don't have a very happy expression on
their face. This owl was roosting in a screech owl nest box, sleeping as owls do
during the day in late November of 2009.  The opportunity to see him up close
was so special.  There was only time for some quick reference photos, and the
one I used for this sketch page was taken in overcast conditions.  No light
reflected in those eyes, making that beautiful face even more menacing than it
naturally would be under these circumstances.  So when I initially painted the
sketch page, I painted the dark pupils reflecting no light, as in the photo.  As
you can see, this does not result in an appealing expression.  Light brings life
into our wildlife sketches.


I was surprised when I saw how long ago I first created this sketch.  I had
finished the right side of the face, leaving the left unfinished and the dark
eyes scrubbed out.   Yesterday, when I came across this unfinished sketch, I was
again struck by the beauty of this magnificent little bird, our only small
eastern owl with ear tufts (feathers). Screech owls are only about 7-10" in
height and are both predators (omnivores) and prey for larger owls and hawks.

While visiting this sketchbook, I looked at more pages.  Many were finished,
giving me a feeling of deep satisfaction and pleasant memories of the moments
they captured. Others were left blank with a note about what I wanted to paint
in that space, and still others had a pencil sketch. Any of your sketchbooks
look like this?


Above, you see a delightful moment in a cold November rain when a tufted
titmouse was singing his heart out just beyond my patio in the midst of red
holly berries.  I look forward to finishing this page soon.

Owls are among the most beautiful of birds, with very intricate feathering
patterns around their face forming the facial disk that is characteristic of all
owls.  The facial disk is composed of stiff, lacy feathers that serve to direct
air flow and aid vision and hearing.  But beyond function these feathers are
exquisitely beautiful!  The feather tufts that we often call "ears" help
camouflage the owl while it sleeps during the day.


Eastern screech owls come in two colors, the rufous or red phase you see here
and a gray phase.




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Labels: Eastern screech owl, sketchbooks, watercolor birds



SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 2011


CONEFLOWERS--WET-IN-WET AND THE COLORS OF WHITE


Though it is late in the growing season, I had the urge to plant flowers this
past week. It could have been because I ran across some of my favorite
perennials that I couldn't find earlier in the season--coreopsis and
coneflowers.


Besides the insects and birds that flowers attract, they are beautiful and fun
to paint! Yesterday, I enjoyed an opportunity to sit near these garden additions
and create coneflowers in my sketchbook using brush and paint without the detail
of drawing. Coneflowers have a distinctive shape with daisy-like petals that
loosely droop. How deeply the petals droop depends on the stage of the flower's
maturity.  This characteristic makes them good subjects for loose painting.  By
that, I mean watery painting with less concern about detail.


Besides planting purple coneflowers, I also planted a white coneflower variety.
 The white in flowers is particularly fun to paint.  "White" in a watercolor
painting is the lightest color/value in your painting.  Since white flower
petals generally reflect the colors around them, they offer a fun opportunity to
play with wet-in-wet painting, letting the colors blend on the paper and a brush
stroke of clean water carry pale pigment into petal shapes.  I'll show you what
I mean.


Below, you see how I created the watery flower images you see on the right hand
side of the sketchbook at the top of this post.  If you would like to give this
way of creating coneflowers a try, use one of the images above, or a flower from
your own garden or collection of images as a guide.  If you already have
experience with this type of painting, this exercise makes a fun and relaxing
practice.

On dry paper, paint a coneflower head shape, as shown below.  I used WN
Quinacridone gold.


Have two containers of water handy, one to rinse your brush between colors, the
other to load your brush with clean water.  Brush clean water along the edge of
the painted area and bring it down to form the shape of the flower head, as
shown below.  Leaving white areas is one way to add interest and give the
impression of light reflection. Learning how much water your brush holds and how
much you need to use comes with practice.


While this area is still wet, drop in some cerulean blue (or another blue of
your choice) along the bottom edge.


Rinse your brush and load it with clean water.  Touching the edge of the bottom
of the cone shape, paint a petal shape with clear water coming down from the
cone center. Pigment will flow into the water left by the brush stroke.  Tilt
your paper if needed to aid this movement.


Continue to create petal shapes with brush strokes of water.  I enjoy the
surprise of this technique and the richness of the color that is created when
pigment is dropped into pigment.  The cerulean blue and quinacridone gold blend
to create a nice green like the underlying color seen at the base of the yellow
and orange blossoms of the coneflower head.


In the next study, I dropped in WN French ultramarine blue and a touch of Daniel
Smith Alizarin Crimson along the bottom edge.  

Below, you see the variation that resulted.


Try a series of these studies and enjoy seeing a variety of interpretations of
these lovely flowers.  Try adding a stem and a leaf.  And if you try this
exercise and post your results on your blog, send me a link.  If you would like,
I can post the link here.  If you don't have your own blog, and would like to
share your results here, send an image to me at:  viclcsw (at) aol (dot) com.
 Below, you see more of my studies.


I've used a scrap sheet of watercolor paper (with a rejected painting on the
other side) and divided it with artist tape to create six separate painting
areas for these studies.

Coneflowers are part of the aster (asteraceae) family, along
with sunflowers and, like sunflowers, have a flower head with many tiny
blossoms.  This is clearly one of my favorite flower families!




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