Spring Flight

Common Green Darners, Tree Swallow, Pied-billed Grebe and Canada Goose on Nest. Pencil and Crayon Sketch by Ken Januski.

One of the great thrills of spring is the exuberant flight, or at least it looks exuberant to me, of birds and insects. Tree Swallows are always among the most impressive and such a welcome change from the slow pace of winter. Yesterday they were joined by the first dragonflies of the year, Common Green Darners, as well as soaring Red-tailed Hawks. I couldn't find a place for the hawks here but I did manage to combine the Tree Swallows and Common Green Darner. Typical of this time as well, particularly in the wetlands of Morris Arboretum, are nesting Canada Geese. Much rarer and in fact yesterday was the first time we've seen them there were Pied-billed Grebes, in migration I'm sure.

I think because this is such an exciting time I'd like to use a medium that matches the excitement and exuberance. Over the years I've found that pencil and water soluble crayons, which are capable of also being used as a wash, work very well. As in the last post this is done with Caran d'Ache Neocolor II crayons..

GBBC 2014 -Day 4

Canada Geese with Wood Duck in Swan Pond at Morris Arboretum. Pen Sketch by Ken Januski.

My Kingdom for Some Snowshoes!! That was my thought yesterday as we finally dug out the car and drove to the last day of birding for the Great Backyard Bird Count. On day 1 and day 3 we'd walked and had to traipse through a lot of deep snow. It was difficult but I never thought I was going to injure myself.

Yesterday was something different. At Andorra Natural Area and also off the plowed walks at Morris Arboretum the snow was treacherous. There was just enough crust to make you  feel that it would support your weight. Then just as you moved a leg forward the back one broke the crust and fell 6-18 inches. At various times I, and to a lesser extent Jerene since she's so much lighter, wondered just what would get injured: knee, ankle, hip?

We cut our snow birding short at Andorra and did the last half of our birding from the road, having to dodge cars occasionally. It was a great relief when we went a short distance over to Morris Arboretum and were able to walk on plowed walks. Only occasionally did we tempt the snow and each time quickly gave up in defeat. Why in the world didn't we buy snowshoes when they  were on sale? Well the answer is simple. We never get much snow in Philadelphia! This year has been a shocking reminder that sometimes we really do get a winter.

In any case with all the effort of just walking I didn't do any  sketches  and only took a couple of photos. They  were of two Wood Ducks with a number of Canada Geese and Mallards in the Swan Pond.  I really only took them as proof that we'd seen some. I didn't have time to take photos of the ones we'd seen at the Schuylkill River on Friday.

In looking at them I  discovered that I'd also gotten a Canada Goose in full  stretch. Since I like to force myself to do an 'illustration' for these birding reports it seemed like a good one. The Wood Duck and other Canada Goose weren't in these locations so I took some artistic liberties.

I like forcing myself to do these. It reminds me of the many artists in visual, musical, literary media who have done some of their best work under pressure. None of these are my best work by far. But they do force me to try something new. Often that leads to a more developed work. And all in all I think they're far more useful to me artistically than the pen sketches of a week ago.

And as I've said before I thank the Great Backyard Bird Count for encouraging us, and everyone, to get out and see the beauty of nature in winter. I have to say that when I lived in California years ago I greatly missed it. It does have its disadvantages at time but also its own unique rewards.

Finished Edition of Downy Woodpecker and Canada Goose

I don't hang out with printmakers. But I get the feeling that with some, just as in any other specialized field, there can be a real emphasis on technique. If you're making a living printing other people's prints this makes sense. Your customers might be very exacting. But when I look at books on printmaking my eyes often glaze over. They may be technically accomplished but they seem dull to me.

Of course printmaking really is the people's art in the sense that anyone can do it if they use a simple medium like linocut. So I often see prints that I like online. Amateur prints sometimes seem more direct.

In any case this is all to say that I don't have good printmaking technique. But as I've continued half-way through year number two of linocuts I'm beginning to feel more comfortable with some technique. Probably my biggest and most unpleasant surprise as a printmaker was the difficulty in getting a good, clean print when I printed an edition.

By that I mean one where the flat colors were fully inked, without any blooms of missing ink, and yet where lines of white stayed white and didn't fill up with the ink. Too much ink so that the flat areas were fully saturated and then the lines also filled in with ink. Or vice versa.

Then there was the struggle with pressure on the baren, the device used to put pressure on the paper that sat on top of the inked block. Too little pressure and the ink on print was too light. Too much and not only might the incised lines fill in with ink but the paper also might start being pulled apart, one little lint-filled piece at a time.

If I had my own press I wouldn't need to worry about the pressure applied on the baren. But I'd probably have other more complicated problems. So until I have a waiting list to buy my prints I'll stick with hand pressure using a baren.

I often expect the actual printing of an edition to be somewhat grueling. Will the combination of ink, paper and baren work correctly? Will I get a good edition of the size I'd hoped for?

Above is most of the printed edition. I was quite happily surprised when this edition proved to run quite smoothly. I used a fairly new ink, which I haven't used much, Caligo Safe Wash Ink, an oil based ink that can be cleaned with soap and water. I also used a new paper: Rives Heavyweight. I've used Rives BFK in the past but it seems too think and unabsorbent for hand rubbed linos. I've also used Rives Lightweight but sometimes it seemed too light and apt to tear. (Well I'm afraid I was mistaken here. A few days after posting this I needed to organize some prints for a competition. As I did so I had to add the specifics for each. As I did so I realized that most of them were Rives Heavyweight! I'd only recently turned to Lightweight and had completely forgotten the many prints with Heavyweight). And finally I used a new Speedball baren that I received for Christmas rather than the bamboo barens I had been using. I'm not sure what the main factor was but they all worked together beautifully.

In the final analysis the most difficult part was signing them. First I forgot that it was 2012 not 2011. In printmaking an edition is usually labeled in the form of 1/12, meaning print 1 of an edition of 12. I knew that there was a problem when I went to write 13/12 today. Oops the edition was 16, not 12.

Delayed by a Gull

I've done a fair amount of work on the linocut of the Downy Woodpecker and Canada Goose since I showed the earlier states here. But the late April/early May weather here has made it hard to stay inside and work in the studio.

Today we were near Flatrock Dam along the Manayunk Canal in the morning. In the roiling waters perched on a huge slab of stone stood a gull I didn't recognize. That doesn't say much since I just don't know gulls. Often I see a mature Great Black-backed Gull there. But this bird looked more slender, though possibly as large, and definitely didn't have the rich charcoal gray of the mature Great Black-backed.

I tried a couple of field sketches, in lower right corner above, but they don't show much. One thing that struck me was the long and seemingly slender neck. He also looked pear-shaped from the front. That's what these two sketches tried to capture.

I also took some photos. And though the gull was quite distant I was able to do some sketches based on them. Drawing them helps me often to see things I wasn't sure of when I saw the bird live, like just how big the bill is.

Seeing the bird live I noticed most his slenderness, at least around the neck. That made me think it wasn't a Great Black-backed. But birds can often look more slender than normal when they stretch our their neck. As I drew the huge bill I came to the conclusion that it was a Great Black-backed, in spite of the seeming slenderness.

I also was quite taken by the roaring and roiling water around him. I've never tried to paint such a scene but today I just had to. One of my friends has spent a lot of time recently painting seascapes. She knows how complicated they are, how important it is to begin to understand water. I don't. But I still felt like I just had to give it a try.

Above is the latest stage of the lino. I haven't touched it in a couple of days. If we ever get some bad weather I'll get back to it. I am happy with it and would like to print an edition. But this good weather can be very distracting.

From Field to Print

You might think that with a new baren, a new copy of Robert Gillmor's 'Cutting Away' and a stack of new printmaking paper all in the studio as of late 2011 that I'd be eager to get back to linocuts. Perhaps, but I just never could convince myself of a subject.

I have considered a couple subjects including the first version of the Solitary Sandpiper with the Twelve-spotted Skimmer but I just couldn't convince myself.

This Tuesday I spent over four hours wandering around the wetlands of Morris Arboretum. I kept hoping for first of year Kildeer or Eastern Phoebes. No such luck. Even the birds I did see weren't very close so I didn't get good field sketches either. I at least hoped to see again the first of year Swamp Sparrow that we'd seen on Sunday. They're a subtly beautiful bird.

While buried in a shaded scrubby area hoping for the Swmap Sparrow a Downy Woodpecker flew in. Soon a Canada Goose wandered by behind him, prospecting the sunny grass for food. At the bottom right of the field sketch above I hurriedly sketched a little thumbnail of the scene: Downy in shade, with big lumbering Canada Goose in the sunshine behind him.

As I thought about doing a new print I liked the idea of developing this tiny sketch. That is what I did above. I also made some unsuccessful attempts to sketch the newly arrived Tree Swallows in flight. They didn't work out at all but nonetheless I decided to incorporate one in the sketch and two in the lino. They're so small and indecipherable that they may disappear from the lino before I'm done.

But for now they stay. This is about proof number 5 or 6 on the lino. The block is tiny at 4x6 inches. But sometimes smaller prints lead to greater freedom. I rarely like the appearance of a lino at this early stage. But I'm happy with this one. This is done with cheap ink on printer paper. Once it's more developed I'll turn good ink on some of that new printmaking paper. And the watercolor of the Swamp Saprrow, which I finally saw and photographed, will have to wait.

Odds and Ends

When I began this blog about 3 and a half years ago I used one of my first bird paintings as the header. Some of you may have noticed that the header has changed. And about time some might say! Three and a half years is a long time in internet time. But internet time can also be a harsh, and foolish, taskmaster. Who wants to try to keep pace with internet time? I'd rather have a life.

The first header was of a Blackburnian Warbler and so is the new one. I'm quite happy with the last reduction linocut so I wanted to showcase it. Since it's also of the same bird it seemed like a good idea to make the switch.

In a sense the two works show the beginnings and end of a journey. The early watercolor was one of my very first bird paintings. In it I think I stayed closer to abstraction than to realism. I liked the boldness of it but I also felt guilty about not knowing enough about the bird to stay true to it. Five years later I feel that I now know quite a bit about portraying birds. So the new print to me seems a happy combination of abstraction and realism. That's what I wanted when I started with birds and I think I've accomplished it.

In any case this explains the new header.

You may not have guessed it but the multi-color reduction linocut was a lot of work. I totalled up all my hours and they're almost 50. After such intense work it's nice to do something less demanding. So I've been out field sketching, taking photos and doing small studies based on both.

The small watercolor at top is a Least Sandpiper, based on field sketches and photos from Morris Arboretum last weekend. I still haven't gotten free, or accomplished, enough with watercolor for my work in it to be a successful blend of realistm and abstraction like the linocuts. But I keep working and playing at it. This is one such attempt.

Today was a cool morning for a change so I took advantage of it and took a lengthy walk along the Wissahickon Creek in Philadelphia.

Above is a field sketch of a Least Sandpiper from last weekend as well as some birds seen today: a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Eastern Chipmunk and Red-tailed Hawk. Only the chipmunk sat still for more than a split second. The other two birds were in flight.

Above a Canada Goose from this morning, along with a Wood Duck taking off as I scared him out of water, a less shy Wood Duck preening itself and a trout in the creek.

Finally the subject of my other, very occasional blog, Feeding on Devil's Walkingstick
. These prickly shrubs are just starting to form flowers. Soon they'll bloom, then form berries, then be inundated by birds, mainly warblers and thrushes. I just wanted to do a quick sketch of one as the flowers start to form.

Take a Break - Sketch a Bird

A short year ago I could never have written the title above. Finished artwork was easy. It was field sketching that was torture. I took a break from field sketching by doing the easy work of a finished drawing or painting.

But times have changed. I think there are really two reasons for this: 1, I bought a decent spotting scope so that I got better views of birds, and also had another free hand for drawing, and 2, the incredible bird artists on the Wildlife Art thread of birdforum, most of whom are dedicated field sketchers. Those two factors I think, along with a fair amount of practice, have helped to make field sketching fun for me.

After all the work that went into the last painting, including all of the studies, and the pressure of not messing up the final painting after all the preliminary work, I felt ready for something different. So the last two days I've been able to devote a little time to sketching in the field. Fortunately it hasn't been so hot that it was uncomfortable doing so. In fact today was a beautiful sunny day in the 70s.

Anyone who knows birds well will realize that there are many mistakes in these drawings, sections where I just got something wrong. But often I also realize that myself, after I've made the mark, or maybe after I get home and have looked in a guidebook to check on something. That doesn't bother me. It's only when you learn that you don't know something that you're capable of gaining that knowledge. So the bills on my Common Grackles are not quite right. I need to take a better look at them in guidebooks and other reference material and next time I'm more likely to get them right in the short time that a grackle poses for me.

I've never been all that bothered by failure, at least in the things that are important to me. The reason for this is that early on I learned that you have to fail in order to learn. It's just part of the process. Everyone who is successful has failed. It just doesn't work any other way. The important thing is not to lose all momentum due to fear of failure. You just have to try something and then learn from it. I normally wouldn't go on in this preachy way except that I've seen so many people in my life who don't seem to understand this.

Enough of that psycho-babblish diversion! I just meant to say that today the successes in my sketches, at least to me, far outweigh the failures. So that keeps reinforcing me to do more of them. And I make greater effort to get more unusual birds down on paper. I don't have to stick with the big, more sedentary birds.

And today's star bird, though you'll probably have a hard time finding it, is a female Orchard Oriole feeding her young in their pendulous nest. It was a real treat to find them today. Unfortunately she was rarely there. She was out looking for food for 5-10 minutes at a time, then appeared for less than 15 seconds to feed the young, generally just one of the young. Then she'd fly off again, often with a fecal sac. I really wanted to get this down on paper, so I set up my scope and focused it on the nest. I drew the nest, and the open mouth of one of the young, then waited for the mother's return. This was a lengthy process. This is portrayed in the lower right of the second page of drawings. I wish I'd been able to do a better job but I'm happy with what I got. And I'm happy that I just decided to try it, and didn't worry about it being too difficult.

Also on that page are a number of Cedar Waxwings, which are surprisingly antsy, some Commong Grackles, and a hastily seen and drawn White-breasted Nuthatch in the upper right.

The first page includes Mallards, Canada Geese, as well as Mallard hybrids and more Common Grackles.

The last page includes just one juvenile Tree Swallow. I also focused the scope on him. Every once in awhile he'd let out a squawk, open his mouth and lift up his wings. A second later another Swallow would appear, in seeming attack. This is portrayed in the middle of the page.

It's these individual moments as well, that of the Orchard Oriole feeding her young, and the Tree Swallow fighting off a young peer, that give added meaning and enjoyment to this type of sketching. You actually capture a moment in time. I believe that the excitement of doing so often comes through in sketches from life. And that makes them all the more worthwhile and exciting.

Canada Geese on Nest

I know that Canada Geese are not the favorite bird of most people, and I understand why. But we've been seeing a lot of them recently, most on nest but one with goslings. It's odd that we've never run into so many on nest before. I don't know if we just didn't happen to be at these areas at the same time of year, were just oblivious to them or what. Especially at Morris Arboretum wetlands we keep running into pairs of them, with one on nest, as we walk around the pond. Seeing them and their breeding behavior up close has given me a new appreciation for them.

Yesterday at the suggestion of some artists at birdforum, particularly Sid Frissell and Nick Derry, I did a quick painting based on two of my sketches from earlier this week at Morris: one a Canada Goose on nest, the other a turtle sunning himself on a log. I then added a third Canada Goose from a photo I'd taken there a few weeks ago.

This is a small, quick watercolor, more of a study than anything else. I could have tried some preliminary sketches first but I wanted to just try it out in paint. Now that it's done I can see that if I were to do a finished painting I'd change the composition a bit. I'd probably not let the water get so dark, and I'd put a little more color in the turtle and have the browns of foreground hummock not so closely match the browns of the foreground Canada Goose.

That's the nice thing about such quick paintings. They allow you to think out loud. With a more flexible medium, like oil, I could just make the changes on the same painting. But watercolor turns to mud when overworked. So most of the time the changes that need to be made have to be made in a new painting. And that's fine. I think this tends to make me more carefree and adventurous in these paintings.

Snow Today, Gone Tomorrow

Oddly enough the snow I painted yesterday is completely gone today. There's good and bad to this. Our yard is not as scenic. But it is a little bit easier to go out for a walk. We normally take a Christmas walk but cold and constant rain prevented that this year.

Today though we headed out to the Wissahickon. Though in a valley, where ice and snow often doesn't melt, at least 90% of the snow was gone. So we had an easy, though somewhat sloppy walk.

The great surprise was that it was warm enough to sit down on the benches at Valley Green and do some field sketching. Who would have thought we could sit comfortably and sketch Canada Geese just a week after 24 inches of snow and weather in the 20s?

As I said it was a great treat. There's always something enjoyable about working in the studio. There's greater artistic freedom, more artistic license. And I love that. But it's also nice to be outside drawing what is right in front of you.

The watercolor was done in the studio based on one of the two field sketches. It's another 15-30 minute sketch. I got a bit sloppy with the heads and lost the white markings that should be there. But I did manage to get in much of the landscape and water. That's what I intended in the drawing and it's what I tried to keep in the sketch.

There's much to be said for portraits of birds. But all in all for me, I'd prefer to show them in their environment, even if they might lose their pride of place. In any case that was the intent in these quick works.

Valley Green in Pastel

After sleeping on it I decided to go back into yesterday's pastel of Canada Goose, Graylag and Mallard at Valley Green. Though I really liked the white undeveloped area something told me that I ought to keep developing it just to see what it looked like. There was also the possibility that I was afraid to ruin a good start with continued work. So that is always the dilemma: are you quitting because it really is done or because you fear ruining a good start? The answer is never clear, certainly not to me anyway!

By the way this is more or less exactly the way the geese and mallard were grouped. Because the Valley Green section of Wissahickon Creek is accessible by car it gets a lot of visitors. So the geese and ducks just hang out, waiting for handouts.

But I'm happy with it and happy I continued work on it. At the same time I do have an almost visceral reaction to works that seem too finished, at least if they are my own work. So I'm sure this dilemma will not go away

Magic Geese

In all my work drawing geese and ducks at Valley Green over the last few weeks I always thought I really ought to do some more finished work using them as subjects. I'm not yet good enough with field sketching to base a finished work on it. So my last day there I took some photos.

You see the result in this pastel.

I have an almost pathological aversion to losing all the white in a drawing or a watercolor(even if I eventually do!). So I'm leaving this as is for now. I'm very happy with it. I just can't tell if it will survive with so much undeveloped white paper.

But I do have sense enough, finally, to leave it sit for now and not go back into it. I'd love to leave is as is. But I need to take a break and see if that will work or is just wishful thinking on my part.

The title of this post, 'Magic Geese', by the way refers to their beauty. Many people just think of Canada Geese as pests. And I can understand that view when 100s of them congregate on your lawn, leaving their little presents. But when you sit down and try to draw them you can't help but see how beautiful they are, in structure, value and color.

Field Box and Fly-Tying

A number of years ago when I used to fly fish for trout I decided to explore fly-tying, the tying of very small lures meant to imitate insects and other trout food. I'd avoided it for years even though I hated paying for lures tied by someone else. The reason I avoided it is that I have big hands and lures are basically very small trinkets that are sewn together. Me as a small seamstress? It didn't seem likely.

Nonetheless I finally got the hang of it and learned to work 'very small.' I have that same feeling with my new Field Box. It is so small. All in all though it's easier to use than fly-tying materials so today I spent another hour before work sketching Canada and Chinese Geese at Valley Green.

Like yesterday they're nothing to brag about and they probably show me more what I still need to learn than they make me happy with the current results. Still I'm not embarrassed to show them, and that says something because I have posted work that I have been embarrassed about in the past. Or maybe the embarrassment just won't hit me until they're posted and it's too late!! Possibly, but I think not. I do like something about these.

Today is supposed to be very warm, about 90. But it couldn't have been a more beautiful day than it was when I was out sketching these. Must be the end of August.

Sketching Ducks and Geese Live

There is a popular spot along the Wissahickon Creek in Philadelphia that includes a restaurant, parking, lots of people, and a quiet stretch of water. The quietness would attract ducks and geese to begin with but the addition of families throwing out bread to feed them makes it particularly attractive to them. This is Valley Green.

It's about 10 minutes away by car and I've been hoping to get up early enough to head over there and get an hour's drawing done from life before heading off to work. I did that today and the results are above. Subjects are primarily Canada Geese, Mallards, and stray pigeon or grackle. All are done from life without benefit of scope or binoculars. I used pencil with a bit of watercolor pencil and waterbrush.

All in all I'm pleased with them, especially the geese and the lone mallard. Probably more than anything they convince me of the tremendous possibilities in working from life.

First warbler of 2008!

I heard at least one of them as soon as I stepped off of the sidewalk along the Walnut Lane Golf Course and into the woods of the Wissahickon. The problem was that I hadn't heard these trills in 9 months or so. Was it a Pine Warbler or a Chipping Sparrow? The nearby White Pines suggested Pine Warbler but the golf course also has a number of Chipping Sparrows around April each year. As I walked along the trail down to Forbidden Drive I heard the call again. I was about to give up on finding it and just continue down to the Wissahickon at Forbidden Drive, where migrants are often more plentiful. But then there was a particularly insistent call. So I stayed. And finally was rewarded with a view of my first warbler of 2008, a pine warbler!

I think most birders who live in areas where there are four seasons will tell you how exciting it is to see the first warbler of the year. There are of course many other migrants which tell their own story about the seasons. But the warblers are among the first of the neotropical migrants, many of which stick around for less than a month before heading further north to breed. They indicate both the beginning of spring and the beginning of another all too short season of spring migration. But like the Bloodroots which are just starting to bloom in our small woodland garden, they are somewhat ephemeral. You need to enjoy them while they're here because they won't be here for long

I also saw an Eastern Phoebe, in more or less the same spot where I saw my first one of 2008 a few days ago. Other birds include 10+ Common Grackles, 13 Canada Geese, far more than I normally see in this area of the Wissahickon, Reb-bellied Woodpeckers, many Robins, White-Breasted Nuthatches, Mourning Doves, Cardinals, Juncos, Carolina Chickadees, Song Sparrows and American Crows among others.

Why I Love Sketching From Life

I did this small drawing of Canada Geese in the Wissahickon while on this walk. It was drawn in 30-60 seconds and I added a bit of watercolor when I got back home. It's nothing exceptional, to say the least, but it does remind me of the excitement of working from life. There is something about sketches that often seem to capture the dynamism of life. Though the best art is often considered to be that which is most developed I often find myself admiring the sketches of some artists more than their finished work. Rembrandt springs instantly to mind. I also have great admiration for the sketches of Richard Diebenkorn and Elmer Bischoff though I also love their paintings. Perhaps because their paintings also have much of the spontaneity of their drawings there doesn't seem to be such a dichotomy. This also reminds me of how much I enjoy looking at the sketches in 'Drawing Birds' by John Busby and how much more fulfilling I find them than much more finished and polished 'wildlife art.' They capture both the vitalty of the subject and something of the airy quality of being outdoors. Perhaps in another time, where I spent more time outside I would find this less valuable. But today there is something especially appealing and rewarding about art that exudes both vitality and a sense of the light and atmosphere of the outdoors.