GBBC 2015 Day Three - Playing It Safe

Carolina Wren and House Sparrows On Feeder. Watercolor Sketch by Ken Januski.

'Playing It Safe' is one of those titles that works on many levels: 1) with a temperature of 7 and winds of 30 mph when I woke it up I thought I might not get out birding today and might need to play it safe by sketching something I could see from the house; 2) I could also play it safe by staying in and not freezing to death on a day where a falling tree might be more likely than an unusual, or maybe even usual bird; and 3, the original reason for the title, the smaller Carolina Wren in this picture has learned to play it safe by actually getting into the feeder thus frustrating the efforts of the larger birds, like the House Sparrows pictured here, to bully him or her out of the way.

Quite a few years ago, when I did a lot more woodworking than I do today, almost all of it with handtools not power tools, I bought a multi-plane. I can't recall whether it was a Record or a Stanley. It was a beautiful plane with far more capabilities than a rank amateur like myself could ever use. Once I got it though I wanted to try out some of its cutters, specifically the ones for molding. I did so on a piece of pine I think though perhaps it was a harder wood. In any case I ended up with a nice fairly complicated piece of molding with no conceivable use. And then I thought I could make a little 3"x3" bird feeder.

That was 10-15 years ago and yet it remains one of the favorite feeders of backyard birds. I did coat it with varnish as I recall. Otherwise it could not have survived.  Carolina Wrens are often the first birds at our feeders in the morning and they often get the peanut pieces in the feeder all to themselves. But soon enough the hordes of bullying House Sparrows are there and drive them off. Finally at least one of the wrens got wise. It now sits itself down in the feeder where it is somewhat immovable. Finally enough belligerent House Sparrows may chase it off but it is able to eat a bit longer.

This pencil, watercolor and gouache sketch is done from memory and from photos I've taken of House Sparrows and Carolina Wrens and also field sketches I've done of them. I had to use white gouache because I realized I'd made the wren too large in relation to the House Sparrows. In fixing that I lost the white of the supercilium and throat. So out came the white gouache in the hopes of regaining it in its new smaller location. Once I add gouache I know that I'm on to a rougher type of watercolor. I'm no longer playing it safe. At this time only brute force, mainly of gouache and opaque colors have some chance of saving the day.

Such sketches almost always end up looking rough. But they also are among the sketches most likely to serve as the basis of a later painting or print.

If an unusual bird appears in the yard or I decide to brave the cold and windy weather later today I might post a bonus GBBC picture but most likely I'll play it safe and stick with this.

Snowbound Sketching

Brown Thrashers. Pen Sketches by Ken Januski.

Carolina Wrens. Pen Sketches by Ken Januski.

Today and the following three days are the days of The Great Backyard Bird Count, an enjoyable and useful project that we always take part in. For years though we've preferred to replace the backyard with larger and more environmentally rich areas in the near vicinity.

BUT, we have I'd guess about 18 inches of snow outside right now. I can't really convince myself to drive around, and try to find parking places, in such circumstances so the GBBC so far has been limited to our backyard. Perhaps I'll  get a bit more adventurous soon. Who knows what affect all this snow will have on birds.

Because I've been stuck inside for the last 36 hours or so I've continued with doing ballpoint pen sketches based on my photos. A perceptive viewer might note that they are done in alphabetical order That's because my photos are organized that way and I'm slowly perusing them, sketching what strikes me.

These two are done using the two circle method. You might of course ask just where they are. Well I put them in very lightly, just as a guide for the final lines. It is always a bit surprising to me how delicate a ballpoint pen can be, perhaps because of the quick  movement of the pen across the paper. In any case I'm always surprised how rich it can be and also how easy it is not to feel too limited by the permanent nature of the ink. i.e. you can't erase earlier markings. Occasionally I've added a bit of white pastel if I've needed to try to erase some marks. But generally speaking I live with the marks I make.

As with the other recent sketches these are done in a Stillman and Birn Epsilon sketchbook.

Running Out of Room

Deer, Green Heron, Wood Ducks. Linocut on Rives Heavyweight Paper by Ken Januski.
 

I used to run out of room a lot when I was painting large 6'x8' foot abstract paintings. In fact the old ones that I have still eat up a lot of room. When I turned to printmaking though I didn't really anticipate this sort of problem. However I forgot about drying prints. Once they're printed they need to dry. With a edition of 20 or so this can take up some room, especially if they're laid flat rather than hung.

Because of that I haven't been able to print an edition of the deer linocut above and below. I still had all the prints from the Rusty Blackbird and Carolina Wren laying around. They were probably dry but I still had the vague notion of adding a few tidbits of green to the print, just as the sparse vegetation indicated in the actual scene along the Manayunk Canal in Philadelphia last winter.

Finally yesterday I bit the bullet and tried some experimenting. I didn't think I could successfully print the three small areas on either of the original. So I improvised a screen out of a manila folder and cut out the three small areas. Then I printed through that onto the otherwise finished prints. The paper was a bit too thick to work as well as I would have like but basically it got the job done. It is shown at the bottom of this post. It has been very difficult to photograph this print, I think because of all the darks. In any case this photo is pretty close but still not as rich, or as coloristically unified as the actual print.

Deer, Green Heron, Wood Ducks. Linocut on Japanese Paper by Ken Januski.
 

Once it was finally printed I went back to work on the Deer, Green Heron and Wood Ducks lino. The first version printed in an edition of 8 is at top.  It's on Rives Heavyweight paper.

As I was going through my printmaking paper in preparation for it I found some old, unnamed Japanese paper. I have no idea what is is. In any case I decided to try it out in a small edition of 4 using a different color ink. All prints on this page are 9x11 inches with the image itself being 6x8.

I still have the thought of printing this as a color print, most likely reduction but possibly multi-block. I'd like to do more to make the main subjects stand out. But that's for the future. Today I wanted to make sure I had one edition in just one color. Thanks to that old paper I have two.

Rusty Blackbird and Carolina Wren at Manayunk Canal. Combination Linocut/Reduction Linocut by Ken Januski.

Rusty Blackbird and Carolina Wren at Manayunk Canal

Rusty Blackbird and Carolina Wren. Reduction Lino with second lino block by Ken Januski.

Rusty Blackbird and Carolina Wren. Reduction Lino with second lino block by Ken Januski

Barring a few little green tidbits here and there I think this lino is done. I know I'M done! It's always amazing to me how draining these reduction linocuts, especially when combined with another block, can be.

I read of another wildlife printer saying in  Wildlife in Printmaking that it was best to stay away from him on the day he printed an edition. That rang very true to my experience. There are just so many things to keep track of and so many things that can go wrong.

On the other hand I recently hung some of my linos in our bedroom and my wife Jerene was saying the other day how much she enjoyed just looking at the abstract qualities of the Green Heron and Twelve-spotted Skimmer lino. That's exactly the type of reaction I'd like. And it's one that I generally come to myself. It can just take awhile!

Because this is such a dark lino, intentionally, it was hard to photograph. The photos came out too bright and with too much contrast so I doctored them on the computer to make the photo a bit darker. I don't normally do this. But I think this does give a truer indication of what the print actually looks like.

I am happy by the way that it indicates the rich, almost iridescent colors of the Rusty Blackbird.

I'm also happy that this began as a sketch from memory after coming home from seeing the Rusty Blackbird last January or February. Often these sketches aren't great. They would never work as finished works. But they are the first step in articulating an experience. It's always very satisfying when a finished work like this results from it.

Rusty Blackbird LIno - TRUE Color Four

Rusty Blackbird and Carolina Wren. Multi-block reduction  linocut trial proof by Ken Januski.

Oops, I lied the other day. I thought I'd already printed four colors on the reduction lino block but had only printed three. I think I might have been confused by the other black lino block. In any case today I printed the real fourth color. This is the print as it looks so far on good Rives Heavyweight paper. Just one or two more colors here and then overprinting with the black block.

As usual by this time I'm beginning to get a bit exhausted by this. On the other hand I'm also pleased with the way it looks. Hopefully it will be done by the end of the weekend.

Rusty Blackbird Lino - Color 4

Rusty Blackbird and Carolina Wren. Reduction Lino by Ken Januski

I'll most likely jinx myself by saying this but so far this lino is going pretty much as I planned it, way back in January or February when I did the first watercolor of the scene. The newest color is the deep burgundy of the vertical Poke stalks. It's a bit darker than I intended but that may change with the addition of other colors. On the ink slab it was a purple that looked like it could just never work.

There are still all sorts of things that can go wrong with this print and that seems always the case with reduction linos, especially ones that use more than one block. But they also allow for some pretty rich colors and that's one of the things that I'm going for here.

I'm sure that the biggest problem will be when I print the black block. Most likely I'll try a proof tomorrow to get some idea as to just how it will look once the black is added.

Many printmakers talk about the surprise of the process. And that's exactly what I look forward to once I proof the black. What will it look like? Better than I ever could have envisioned? Or much more likely, telling me I have a lot of repairs ahead.

Back to That Troublesome Wren

Carolina Wren. Pencil sketch in Stillman and Birn Gamma sketchbook by Ken Januski.

Rusty Blackbird with Carolina Wren. Reduction linocut trial proof by Ken Januski.

It's hard for me to believe that I last touched the Rusty Blackbird and Carolina Wren reduction linocut more than two weeks ago. But that simple print of the Hummingbird Clearwing Moth turned out to be not so simple and so time just disappeared.

One thing I did know is that the horrible version of a Carolina Wren in the black proof from two weeks ago would have to go. I wasn't worried though because it was just a placeholder on the black linoleum block. I actually planned to cut out the shape and print it on a second linoleum block.

Though I was happy with the shape in the original sketch from early this year I decided it might be wise to do another pencil sketch based on it but with an additional look at my photos. That's it at top, done on Stillman and Birn Gamma paper. I do love this paper for the way it handles erasures and reworking in pencil.

This is 5"x7" paper. On the print though the wren is less that 1.5"x1.5". So I made a smaller copy on the computer, reversed it, and then used tracing paper to draw it on the second linoleum block. At that small size I couldn't control the chisels and gouges for cutting away the lino as well as I'd like. But it was good enough. Above you see the second block with two colors, the yellow of some bent weeds and the brown of the Carolina Wren.

The tall vertical weeds, actually Pokeweed, I hope to make a deep burgundy. After that some more browns and perhaps blue/blacks. Then finally the black lino printed on top of it all. At that point it will be time to evaluate the results, see what emergency has arisen, and I'm sure one will arise, and then decide where to go from there.

I always envisioned this as a dark but rich scene, whether in watercolor on relief print, due to the dark rich colors of the Rusty Blackbird. So far that seems to be working out.

Oh yes - Rusty Blackbirds don't really have eyes the size of quarters. It will become smaller once overprinted in black.

Linos in the Fire

Hummingbird Moth at Flower. Copy of pen sketch by Ken Januski.

Hummingbird Moth at Flower. Two Lino Proofs by Ken Januski.

After not doing any linos for a week or two I've now started two in the last 24 hours. Too many linos in the fire you might say. That wasn't the plan. But after I started the combination linocut/reduction linocut below of a Rusty Blackbird and Carolina Wren I realized that I didn't have enough paper to proof and print an edition. So today I decided to do something simpler while I waited or the paper to arrive.

Unfortunately I seem to have become allergic to doing anything simple in linocuts. At top is a copy of the sketch I did today of Hummingbird Moth at flower, most likely a member of the mint family. As you can see it's pretty simple. It's been reversed on the computer so I can use it as a template for the linocut.

But after I'd done the first black proofs I decided that it would be good to make the background a different color. And then of course I could use a third color, brown on the moth. So things quickly got complex. Above are two test proofs. The first shows the black lino printed on top of the blue woodcut. Below it I've printed the blue woodcut on top of an earlier black lino just to see what it would look like.

As you can see there is a lot of blue where there shouldn't be in the flowers and moth. I've cut away additional lino so that when I next print the flower should just be black and white. Hopefully this will go quickly. But you just never know.

Rusty Blackbird and Carolina Wren. Watercolor sketches by Ken Januski.

In early 2013 we saw Rusty Blackbirds a number of times, once in the same location as a Carolina Wren. I always thought it would make a good painting or print. Above you can see the first watercolor attempt many months ago in the lower portion of photo. Above it is a new mixed media experiment using a new sketch of the Rusty Blackbird and combined with watercolor and pastel.

Rusty Blackbird and Carolina Wren. Sketches by Ken Januski.

I decided I should do a new Rusty Blackbird sketch before I attempted this print. It's above along with another version of a possible lino, this time with a copy of the sketch pasted on and then watercolor and pastel.

Rusty Blackbird and Carolina Wren. Lino Proof by Ken Januski.
 

After a couple of days of experimenting I decided it was time to get started on the lino. Above is the black portion of the lino printed on copier paper. Much of the black will probably disappear from the final print. I'm at a standstill here because of the lack of printing paper. Once I get some I'll start a second lino block onto which I'll copy a version of this print as a guideline. Then I'll add a straw yellow, deep maroon, probably some browns and maybe a dark blue/black as a reduction print. When that's done I'll go over it with the black lino, hoping I can pull it all together.

P.S. Yes that Carolina Wren looks completely wrong in the lino proof. Though it was fine in the drawing I completely messed it up in cutting it on the lino. Since it will be brown however, I still have the chance to redraw it on the second block, if that makes sense. In other words I know it's wrong but I'm not currently worried about it.

Cloak, Creeper, Carolina, Crayon

Mourning Cloak, Brown Creeper, Carolina Wren. Crayon and watercolor by Ken Januski

One of the things I've come to most enjoy in nature based art is the combination of various things that you might see in nature all at the same time. Yesterday it was the first Mourning Cloak butterfly of the year, a Brown Creeper, probably on his way north for the summer, and a singing Carolina Wren, probably establishing territory, though with them sometimes you think they might just be singing for the fun of it.

I did very minimal sketches of each while I was out at the Wissahickon yesterday. And as I've said I like the Stillman and Birn sketchbooks for working through ideas. Today I know I wanted to use the Caran d'Ache Neocolor II water soluble crayons and that due to all the subjects I'd probably need to work larger. So I chose the Delta 9x12 sketchbook.

To repeat myself one more time I also like the luminosity of the Neocolors and thought they might work well here. I still think this could probably use some minor improvements. But I got what I wanted - a believable version of yesterday's walk in the woods. Hopefully one day it will end up as a more finished painting or print.

Days of Rust

One of the things that interests me as an artist is portraying the sensations that I might experience in seeing something, with that 'something' generally being birds. Recently I saw my first Rusty Blackbirds in many years. I think they're not all that uncommon at nearby Tinicum/Heinz NWR but I just don't get there very often.

When I saw two different birds on two different locations on consecutive days recently I was struck by their subtle coloring. In birding trips over the last week I've often seen a common but striking bird that also sports some beautiful browns, the Carolina Wren.

Both are so striking that they plant a seed in my artistic brain that will eventually germinate into a flower, or perhaps a weed as the case may be.

I have never seen them together. But both are likely to be found in swampy woods and that's  in fact  where I found both Rusty Blackbirds. I kept thinking that I could celebrate them by  putting them both in one painting, tied together by a common environment and those browns.

I'm much more familiar with Carolina Wrens than Rusty Blackbirds so the bulk of time in this painting was getting the drawing of the blackbird to seem right to me. It's based on a photo. The wren is based on a drawing of the wren, drawn six hours after seeing him from  memory.

This is a quick watercolor, though the sketch itself took quite a while. It's 7x10 inches on Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook paper. I haven't used this paper in awhile but it's always useful for working through an idea. And it seems far less forbidding to me than regular watercolor paper. So I'm more adventurous I think when I use it.

I'm happy with this. It could be more fully debeloped, especially in the surrounding vegetation.But I did manage to include both birds and I particularly like the Rusty Blackbird. It's not a detailed photographic replica of the birds, but far more importantly it's indicative of the excitement I felt when seeing each of the birds.

Field Sketches, Old and New

It seems like I don't get that much developed work done during the months of April and May. I'm not sure about June. Because so many new birds are arriving, both migrants and ones that will breed here, there's always a desire to be out in the field, sketching what I see. Above is one of the more interesting sights from the Wissahickon - a male Hairy Woodpecker digging up grubs and giving one to a juvenile. Even though most migrants have passed through there's still a lot of interesting bird behavior to see, much of it family related.

On the same walk where I saw the Hairy Woodpeckers I also stirred up the Carolina Wren above, who wouldn't stop scolding me. I was near an American Robin's nest at th e time but I'm sure he wasn't acting as a cross-species sentinel. Most likely he had one too. There is a competitive edge to much birding as well as an overeagerness to get a bird quickly identified. I don't really like this. It makes it into too much of a sort of shallow game. Check off the bird and be gone, off to check off another one. But many birders also come to love what I've portrayed here, the actual life of birds. The bottom bird in the sketch is a Louisiana Waterthrush. I suspect that he is one of a nesting pair and hope to get more sketches of him and perhaps his family as the months go by.

I never posted all of my Cape May sketches so here are a few more. Above a Whimbrel at bottom, one of the many, many that we saw. Above him an osprey. You'd never guess it but I spent at least 15 minutes on it. He was bringing food back to a nest. But he never stayed long enough for me to to anything other than get a bit more of the face. Since they sometimes will sit stock still this was an unusual and somewhat disappointing situation. I kept hoping I'd end up with a full portrait. It never happened.

One of the more exciting birds, at least for us that we saw in and around Cape May, was a Yellow-breasted Chat. They are often easy to hear but hard to find. This one cooperated by sitting right out in the open on a telephone wire, though only for a brief period. He was really hunched down, perhaps due to the wind, and looked far pudgier than usual. Above him a Worm-eating Warbler drawn from memory a few minutes after seeing him. And finally one of the irresistible American Oysteratchers. They are so fascinatingly odd that I can never resist sketching them if I have the opportuniy.

And finally a Black-crowned Night Heron and Eastern Kingbird also from Cape May. The next time we stop at Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia I'm sure we'll see some more kingbirds. But it's always nice to see and sketch the first of the year.
For me there's rarely anything as exciting as field sketches. They have a raw connection to nature that is so often missing in more developed work. And yet more developed work allows me or any artist to use the more formal aspects of art to create something expressive. I love that as well. But when I first started using birds as subject I really didn't want to just use them as skeletons upon which to hang some abstract mark making and design. I think I've accomplished that. No matter how abstract or expressionistic I might be in my work it is always founded in field work.
I'm not sure that there's much of a market for this type of work but at least I am doing exactly what I want to do. You can't ask for too much more than that. Well maybe winning a prize or two. Speaking of which I just heard that I won't be garnering any honors as a BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year. I was a finalist but did not get further than that. This is disappointing and I'm sure when I see the results I'll question some of the winners. But I also know how high the quality has been for some of the former prize winners. It can be a stiff competition and I'm happy to have been a finalist again this year. I look forward to seeing the actual winners. And to see if any are online friends and acquaintances of mine.

Still Sketching

Garden chores, carpentry chores related to our garden, and a lot of birding and field sketching have argued against any developed work during the last week or two. I don't mind this. During winter I long for warmer weather so that I can actually sketch from life. So that's what I like to do at this time of year. And of course there are always the new arrivals to sketch. That adds some excitement. Above is a field sketch of the first Wood Thrush of 2012. Below it is a poor sketch of an Eastern Screech Owl. In these two instances and almost all the others on pages below I didn't have my scope. So the sketches are done by looking at bird in binoculars and then sketching the bird. It's almost three years since I started field sketching seriously. It is a daunting task. The birds are so often gone before you can put pen or pencil to paper. It seems impossible. And yet when I see field sketches by talented artists I can feel the excitement that they must have had as they drew. Sketches from photos, including my own, leave me cold by comparison. There's just nothing like a good field sketch. I imagine this is related to why I've always preferred Rembrandt's sketches to his paintings. There's an electricity in them that is not found elsewhere.

But it has not been an easy road. The excitement is always there but the results don't always seem to indicate much improvement. This is less so with field sketches done with a spotting scope and birds that tend to sit for more than a split second. And I'm very happy with those. With the sketches done in the manner of this page though I sometimes feel disappointed in my progress. That is starting to change though. I've learned that such sketching requires both mental effort and experience. Once you've gotten certain parts of a bird wrong enough times you start drawing it differently even in field sketches. More I think you learn what you don't know. As I've learned all the things I don't know about constructing a bird on paper I've started to pay more and more attention to those aspects when looking at a bird to sketch it. So even a field sketch that is done in less than 10 seconds may include years of experience and knowledge. I'm starting to feel that with the way I draw woodpeckers, thrushes, wrens, even those troublesome warblers. On the page above are some recent attempts at a Yellow-rumped Warbler, Pileated Woodpecker and Gray Catbird. They still leave much to be desired. But finally I feel that it won't be long before my field sketches show a full and convincing sketch of the birds I see. It is an exciting time.

Above some sketches of a Carolina Wren, all of whom seem to be perched in the open and singing at this time of year, a Red-bellied Woodpecker and a Hairy Woodpecker. I'm starting to feel at home with Carolina Wrens. Woodpeckers are more complicated but I'm starting to pay attention to the different shapes and sizes of their bills, the shapes of their heads, and the patterns on their face and wings. It's a lot to keep track of and generally I can only notice a few things before the bird has flown. But the knowledge is accumulating. I expect that soon my various woodpeckers will actually look like the species they are meant to portray. There is something tremendously exciting about being able to sketch birds as they appear, and disappear, right in front of you. By the way almost all of the credit for my improvement, outside of my actual practice, can be laid at the great examples of field sketching found at the Wildlife Art thread at birdforum.net.

Tourists Have Finally Left

Anyone who has lived in a tourist town or a touristy section of town, as I once did in San Francisco, knows the odd feeling of your neighborhood not really belonging to you. There are all these strangers there, acting like it is THEIR neighborhood.

I had to think of that today while briefly birding and sketching at Carpenter's Woods. Most of the migrants have been gone for a month or so, breeding somewhere farther north. And at least at Carpenter's Woods, the tourist birders are gone as well. They can be numerous in late spring but are almost nonexistent now.

Whether that makes the breeding birds more normal I don't know. But it seems to. That is the feeling I have as I walk through the local places that I bird.

For instance the Acadian Flycatcher, shown in a new watercolor sketch above, sometimes seems like the most numerous bird at the Wissahickon. They're still hard to see as they tend to be at least 15 feet up, fairly well hidden in dense foliage. But I generally get a glimpse of one or two on each walk.

That's one at top left in the field sketches above. It's not really all that successful and doesn't look much different than the many other sketches I've done of it this summer. So while this recent viewing was fresh in my mind I decided to do a watercolor sketch from some older photos I'd taken. My thought was that doing something more developed might coalesce all the tidbits of knowledge I had picked up in all my recent sightings. Hopefully it will. The only other solution I can think of is to just camp out in their vicinity and keep sketching each time they make their 15 second appearance until I have them down.

The tourist season analogy hit me today as a Carolina Wren seemed to scold me for a 5-10 minutes. It took me awhile to realize he was right in front of me, only six feet away, rather than 12-15. The sketch above tries to capture the way he stood with legs splayed, stretched tall as could be, head almost straight in the air, calling out loudly. What was oddest though was how he would switch from facing right to facing left as he did this. Each time he made this quick movement he struck a new dramatic pose. Like the Acadian I'm not happy with the sketch. I also took a couple photos. I might trying to use this sketch and the photos to try to capture this striking event in watercolor.

Regardless of the sketch though the actual experience got me to thinking that I was now in the real world of birds. Perhaps he was warning off a mate on eggs, or with young. In either case it seemed like I'd intruded in the daily life of my local birds.

That's not quite as exciting as glimpsing the brilliant neo-tropical migrants on their short trips through. But it is very satisfying and not at all to be missed. There's nothing like knowing the natural order of the place in which you live.

Oh yes. A field sketch of some low-hanging White Oak leaves. I'm determined to spend more time on this. No more leaf torture remember?

It's That Time of Year, You Know

when there's no time to do anything except what's related to the holidays.

So this little 30-60 minute watercolor was able to sneak itself in because it will be the basis of a holiday greeting card. Which holiday? Well probably Presidents' Day given the late date!

I do continue to like Aquabee Super Deluxe sketchpad for these quick watercolors but the paper warps quickly when you use an overall wash as I have here. It's really better for just small strokes of paint, with not much water. This painting would be far better I'm sure on better paper. My brushmarks would be straighter and cleaner. But sometimes it's good to suffer through things like this because you appreciate the quality materials when you finally get them!

Maybe someone will get me a whole load of good watercolor paper for Christmas! Then again that's not the most exciting present. Better scrounge some up myself.

In case it's not obvious this is a Carolina Wren on our peanut feeder.

Starting To Be Fun...................

I know. I know. I said I would not publish any work until it showed a little more improvement. This sketch may not qualify. But I've been having fun with it. Last week I changed from pen and ink to pencil. I love pen and ink but it's mighty unforgiving, especially when drawing from life. Pencil allows far more deftness of touch, far more variety of line weight. I also added watercolor and waterbrushes about a week ago.

The waterbrushes are new to me and a real treat. Today I was able to add the third component: watercolor pencils. Watercolor pencils combined with waterbrushes is a great combination, just as Pam Johnson Brickell said in my earlier post about drawing birds from life. Pam, you are right. This is really enjoyable!


You get the sensitivity of pencil and the instant paint quality of watercolor with just two drawing utenstils: a waterbrush and a few watercolor pencils.
So now what had been a real struggle, requiring a great deal of no-pain-no-gain philosophizing, has become something enjoyable.

People really learn best I think when they get some reward for their efforts and not just constant failure with the promise of some faroff gain. Drawing birds from life is difficult so it's important to get some reward as you go about it. There is the reward of knowing that you're understanding what birds look like much better than you used to. But it's important to get a visual reward as well. I think that will happen, both for me and others, with this great combination of tools.

One side note: snow must be on the way. Our feeders were full of some of our more uncommon visitors such as a Ruby-Crowned Kinglet and Carolina Wren. That should make for more drawing opportunities tomorrow. And when you look forward to drawing birds from life as an "opportunity" you know that it's starting to be fun.

Bay-breasted Bonus

Can you tell the difference? Yes, the Bay-breasted Warbler is a based on a photo. Though we DID get snow we also got a lot of wind and there have been very few birds at the feeder. So I finally gave up on drawing from life today and decided to try the new waterbrush and watercolor pencils on a sketch based on a photo. This Bay-breated warbler was very difficult to identify when we saw him at John Heinz Wildlife Refuge in Philadelphia in late May, 2008. Only the bay swatches and strongly defined black and white wings confirmed the identification. If nothing else this illustrates the use of visual clues to identify a bird when you don't get the best look. It also illustrates the difficulty of drawing warblers from life. The numerous Bay-breasted warblers that we saw this day were constantly moving. I had to choose between just indentifying them with my binoculars, trying to draw them in the brief time I could see them, or trying to get some photos(this was the only successful one) to use for later reference. All In all it's probably best just to look at them in binoculars and t try to seal the visual memory. When working from photos there's just too much missing information. So you may be able to draw a semblance of the subject but in the back of your mind you know that you're missing something essential.

This really doesn't seem to deserve a new post. So I'm tacking it on to yesterdays.