Painting with Crayons

Wood Ducks, Mallard and Canada Geese at Valley Green. Crayon and wash by Ken Januski

Wood Ducks, Mallard and Canada Geese. Pencil sketch by Ken Januski

Once warblers arrive it's easy to convince myself that I ought to go out and look for them even if there are a million other things I should be doing. That happened yesterday. And of course, outside of three singing Louisiana Waterthrushes, they were nowhere to be seen. The highlight of the day was an Osprey sailing up and down the Wissahickon, calling in his full throated voice as he went. I say 'sailing' deliberately. The wind was so strong that he went by as though shot out of an arrow, twisting and turning with the curves of the stream itself.

I brougth both my Moleskine and Stillman and Birn sketchbooks. As I said last post I'm in the habit of using the Moleskine for ballpoint pen field sketches. When I took up wildlife art I pretty much thought that's what defined a 'field sketch.' And to a large extent that's true.

But I also found myself really admiring the more compositional sketches of a few wildlife artists, often done in the field as well. The problem with field sketches that just try to understand and portray the bird by itself is that they present a problem when used as the basis for a painting. How do you compose it? What goes in the background, the foreground? What are the colors, the light?

That's something that more compositional studies can accomplish. I decided that this might be a very good use of the Stillman and Birn sketchbooks. So yesterday I brought along a small 5.5x8.5. Zeta sketchbook. It was hardbound so I knew that could open it and use  it as one 8.5x11 sheet.

Since I'd seen few birds along the way, and since there were up to 30 handsome Wood Ducks, all at Valley Green I decided to sit down on one of the benches and at least work up a pencil sketch. None of these birds ever appeared as they do in the sketch above. I started with the foreground Canada Goose, then moved on to two different Wood Ducks and placed them behind him, then added a distant goose to his left, Finally I added the female Mallard that floated by later.

This type of compositional study is something that I greatly enjoy. In some ways it exemplifies the very center of art, especially natural art: creating something new out of things actually seen. It emphasizes creativity.

I'm not saying that this is a great 'creation.' I did the pencil sketch on site and then added crayon and wash in my studio over the last two days. I thought I was finished last night but when I looked at the photo I'd taken I saw that all the values seemed to be the same. In particular I thought it would be better to make the foreground darker than the background. This is the type of compositional decision that I think involves another type of artistic creativity.

The quintessential medium for this type of creativity is I think oil or acrylic, mainly because they allow endless variation, modification, fine-tuning. And that's the nature of the title of this post. I really do think that using these Caran d'Ache Neocolor II crayons allows as much flexibility and modification is as possible on a paper surface, outside of actually painting on paper. I think that's one thing I find so exciting about using them on the sturdy Stillman and Birn paper. I can get much closer to painting, and all the artistic fine-tuning that that implies, without actually using paint on canvas.

So that's why I call this post 'Painting with Crayons.' This process gets very close to painting. And for me it gives me the chance to try out small paintings. In that sense this is a true sketchbook inthe original use of the term - a tool in which ideas can be tried out.

I've often liked artists drawings more than their paintings. Rembrandt is a prime instance of this. They show the individuality, creativity, rawness of an artist without a lot of cleaning up to make presentable for the buying public. I think that's still pretty much true today. I often prefer the sketches of wildlife artists to their paintings. An exception I can think of right off is Bob Kuhn, mainly because his paintings don't have a high finish. They keep some of the raw power of sketches, and they make artistic composition as important as nature itself.

It's the ease with which I can make artistic compostional and color decisions with the crayons and the Zeta sketchbook that make me so happy with them as working method for art. Finally I should add that I'd never make a finished painting based completely on the sketch above. There's too much that I'm unhapy with. But it is enough for me to picture a painting in my minds eye, and think about how I might change it to make an actual painting. That's incredibly valuable. After I'd posted this I realized that another version might be good for this Saturday's demo, listed at upper right of this page. I won't have time to do a drawing and use crayons to color it so I've been planning to have the sketch done in advance. This is a variation on the crayon sketch, but this time done with the benefit of reference photos. It's done on Stillman and Birn Delta paper, at a largish 9x12 size. Something I've mentioned before but is worth repeating is that this paper erases beautifully.

Canada Geese with Fallen Beech

With just a bit of daylight left after gallery sitting at the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center I decided to try the quick Bic pen and watercolor sketch above. I continue to like this manner of working. This is based on a photo I took a week or two at Morris Arboretum. I knew that I wasn't going to get much detail on the two geese. But I was really more interested in the entire scene: bright fallen leaves of autumn, huge fallen beech, and two Canada Geese on a sand bar in water that reflected all the colors around it. A sketch like this is just another way of exploring that scene and determining whether or not it deserves further exploration in paint or print.

The MRAC Holiday Show in Philadelphia continues on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. tomorrow, the following weekend and in January. Above are two of my framed prints that hang in it. These prints as well as prints in mats are available for sale there, as are the works of all the other MRAC artists who are exhibiting. It is located in the rear of 419 Green Lane in Manayunk/Roxborough.

I had one more thing to finish up before starting something new like the quick watercolor at top.

This is the finished version of the small 4x6 osprey linocut. I finally finished adding watercolor to the edition of nine prints. This photo is a bit dark. The actual print is a bit brighter than this. There is much more that can be done with this method of working, as I mentioned in another post. But this served as a good introduction to me. It's very odd coloring in each of the prints, almost like going back to grade school. On the other hand some artists do incredibly sophisticated work with this method. I'm sure I'll try a couple more prints in this method to get a better idea of how it works for me.

Elegy for a Junco

Last Sunday I intended on doing some final tweaks to the geese and goslings linocut and then printing an edition. But when I stepped out the front door I found a dead junco on the sidewalk.

Though most bird art, at least western bird art, had been based on dead specimens until at least the mid nineteenth century and the invention of photography, I've never worked from a real specimen, either my own or that of a museum. But obviously it's a long and honored, not to mention necessary, tradition. It's surprising to read about John James Audubon going out hunting for specimens and talking about having a good day hunting. But that's the way most bird art, or naturalistic, scientific study has been done. We tend to forget that with our high powered optics, whether in binoculars, scopes or photographic equipment.

So, sad as I was to find a dead junco, I still decided to bring it into my studio and do a drawing or watercolor of it. The result is at the top. It was informative in that I could really see how the bill is built, how the feather tracts lie, etc. Recently I read that dead birds shrink in size so that my partially explain why it seemed so astonishingly small when I picked it up. Largely though I think it's just that birds are really small. That makes their migratory accomplishments all the more impressive.

In any case I was happy to have the opportunity to portray this unfortunate bird.

On Monday I finished tweaking the linocut and printed an edition of 12 on cream Rives Lightweight paper. Most of the copies are for sale at my etsy site. I'm still not really sure what to make of etsy. At times it seems that it's hard for anyone to ever find anything. And yet many people, mainly crafters, do seem to sell a fair amount of work. Fortunately there is the printsy blog site that lists etsy members that are also printmakers and members of printsy. That's at least a starting point for finding prints there. Printsy also includes interviews with printsy members, including yours truly, selections of new work, and occasional tutorials. I think I might not have tried etsy if it weren't for printsy. As it is I have a few non-print items on my site but soon it will be only prints. All of my work is available for sale at my primary online store. But I thought it would be interesting to try etsy and to have more inexpensive works, specifically prints, for sale there.

Geese, Gosling, Sunlight

Just a quick post since it's been awhile. It was almost exactly a year ago that we saw two Canada Geese with their goslings lit by brilliant sunshine. It made the down of the goslings glow in such a way as to make them look as though they had halos.

I did a quick watercolor back then and this is based on that watercolor. I knew there would be one serious problem though. Light is best portrayed with areas of tone, as in watercolor. It doesn't work so well with lines. But linocut thrives on line, not tone. I know. But I finally decided to do it anyway. Sometimes you just have to take chances.

The two photos here are the exact same state of the lino. They're just printed in different colors. I had been using a burnt siena/yellow mix that gave me a bronzish color. I thought that would add to the sense of light. But on the last print I decided that maybe it wasn't working. So I printed the image again with some black added. So that's why there are two colors.

I"m going to let this sit overnight and probably will do some minor tweaks tomorrow. Then on to an edition.

The Best Way to Bird...

is to just sit still. I had to think of this today as I was talking to two friends and an Osprey came up quietly behind us, landed, and stayed at least 15 minutes as we continued our conversation. When they left I took up sketching him and he probably stayed for another ten minutes, always on the same branch.

It's amazing how often this happens. I'd seen very few birds in 90+ minutes of walking and almost all of them the Canada Geese and Mallards in the sketch above. Then we started talking and the Osprey appeared. A Sharp-shinned Hawk also quietly flew in and landed near us while we talked. Meanwhile a Turkey Vulture kept circling the Osprey, getting closer each time before finally drifting off.

In any case it just proves, to me anyway, that often the best way to bird is to just sit still and let the birds come to you. In the case of the Mallards and Canada Geese they are almost always there at Valley Green, primarily looking for free handouts I think. But there's something pleasant about just watching and sketching them and their world, especially on a day as beautiful as today.

More Geese

As I said yesterday the quick watercolor sketches I do are sort of like thinking out loud visually. I knew that yesterday's watercolor had many things that I would change if I did a more developed watercolor. So today I began a more developed watercolor.

I'm still experimenting with techniques though so this msy turn into just another preliminary watercolor. Today I laid down some broad washes before starting as an experiment. These may unify the painting coloristically but they also take away white areas, for good! So I ended up going back into this with white gouache. And I still need to use more, especially on the foreground goose.

I do like the lighter color it has so far. Of course I really haven't touched the geese or turtles yet. What I do there may make or break the painting. I held off on this time because I knew how complicated the background would be and wanted to work on it first. This is another new method for me. Only time will tell whether I decide that it's a wise one.

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Tuesday afternoon - The newest version is now at top. It's nearly done. I do need to knock down a couple of the white highlights a bit. But other than that I think I've done all I can do with this. It has been fun experimenting with composition. I'm not sure how I feel about how the color and values worked out. That will take awhile to see. As usual in this type of painting I don't go for great detail in the birds. I want them to be recognizable but don't want them to look like highly detailed cutouts pasted on top of a generalized background.

F.O.Y. - A True Calendar

In birder parlance 'F.O.Y.' means 'First of Year.' Though the unseasonably warm weather of the last few days should convince anyone that spring is here, I actually prefer to gain that knowledge by seeing certain natural events that always take place at the same time of year. For instance, the arrival of the first Tree Swallows, who tumble through the air in what looks like boundless enthusiasm. Of course it's probably more simple: they're hawking insects. The first kildeer of the year are the same, and the first blackbirds, chipping loudly and then singing their 'Conk-a-ree' song. These events are what convince me that spring is truly here and that the new cycle of warm seasons has begun. Winter is fading.

We saw our first of year Tree Swallows and Red-winged Blackbirds today at Morris Arboretum. We also saw one Kildeer. And we saw many angry geese, constantly squawking and chasing one another, head down like some vicious snake. We'd never really noticed this behavior before but I'm sure it was territorial - one more sign that spring is truly here.

Finally I'm nearing the end on this watercolor based on some photos I took last week of the first Kildeer of the year. I did a quick watercolor last week but I wanted to do something more developed on better paper. That inevitably causes me to lose some spontaneity I think. And I used a lot of gouache to regain lost whites. I'd prefer to get my whites and light colors through better planning and saving the white of the paper. But for now this will have to do.

Someone, I think Ellen from The Spicebush Log, once mentioned that drawing and painting birds must be relaxing. It is. But it is also tense. One of the tensions is getting what you want down on paper but still keeping the white of the paper so that there is a sense of light emanating from the paper. It is tense but it's also one of the things that I think makes art addictive to artists. You always try to do a little better, and you always know that what you've done is not perfect. So you may be thrilled with it. And yet over time you see the next plateau on the horizon.

Sandhill Cranes and Canada Geese

Thanks to all the artists at the 'Wildlife Art' section of birdforum.net for their advice on how to finish this. Most of the advice was 'don't fiddle' and make any changes in a new painting. That was very good advice. I've made a number of small changes that I think have improved this. But I've kept them small and I think that was a good idea. Especially with watercolor it's easy to overwork the painting and kill it. Better to save any changes for a new painting.

My guess is that learning this is one of the steps on the way to becoming a mature artist. At least for me there is a tendency to rush into the painting and make changes without thinking of the consequences. And of course I'm not alone. Famous artists of the past were known for going into an exhibiition and changing the painting hanging on the wall. I believe that Delacroix was famous for this though I could be wrong.

This is my first developed work on good watercolor paper in months. I hope to continue doing more. As I said in last post these beautiful cranes were seen at Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin last fall. What a treat to be able to see them!

A Watercolor in Progress

It's been awhile since I've done a developed watercolor on good watercolor paper. It's also been a good while since I've shown various stages of a watercolor in progress.

So here's a series from my new watercolor of some Sandhill Cranes and Canada Geese at Horicon Marsh. I saw them last fall. I've really enjoyed the quick watercolors I've been doing for months now. But I felt like it was time to try something more ambitious. I'm sure that aome of the painterly freedom I picked up from the quick watercolors shows up here.

I've spent about 6 hours on it now and it's time for a break. My guess is that it needs at least some more work. But I've been known to ruin a work by overwork, often when I've worked on it too long already. So for now I need to take a break from this and come back to it with fresh eyes.