Philadelphia Empidomax

Empidomax Flycatcher - Willow? Watercolor by Ken Januski

As we hurried out of the house yesterday to do our bluebird nest monitoring at Morris Arboretum before any rain started I was in such a rush that I forgot my sketchbook and drawing pens. So when this very active flycatcher kept dropping to the ground and back I had no drawing utensils other than the small notebook I use to list birds seen and one of my old Faber Castell Pitt Artists Pen, my previous pen of choice.

There was something puzzling about this flycatcher. It had what is called a teardrop shape eye, something not found in local flycatchers. He also flicked his tail occasionally but was obviously not an Eastern Phoebe, the best known local tail-flipping flycatcher. There was also a fairly obvious vest.

I noted all of this in the tiny sketch that I did. But when I got home I didn't refer to the sketch but instead tried a new sketch based on my memory. This is much progress for me - actually being able to retain a memory of a bird. I think this is due to hard looking and much practice.

Though I had brought along a number of Stillman and Birn sketchbooks on the trip to Magee Marsh I found that I only had time to use the one sketchbook that fit handily in my back pocket, a Moleskine. With more time and perseverance I would have gotten to the Stillman and Birn.

In any case yesterday I decided to inaugurate a 5.5x8.5 Delta hardbound sketchbook with this drawing from memory. This is the first page. But as I worked on it I realized I really needed some of the space on the inside book cover. Since it's made of the same paper it was easy enough to do. As usual the paper erased beautifully so that I could keep drawing and erasing until the bird seemed right. After that I added a small amount of watercolor. Given the overall gray color of the bird there really wasn't much color that I could add.

I often find that painting the bird like this soon after seeing it helps to confirm the ID, or at least suggest a likely possibility. This was most likely a Willow Flycatcher, a common bird at Morris, with a surprisingly large eye-ring. If he had called I'd know for sure but he was frustratingly quiet.

I'm happy with this watercolor sketch and especially with the paper. To me it works beautifully, and keeps a very clean quality in spite of strong erasures, for watercolor sketches such as these.

First Pileated Woodpecker of 2013

First Pileated Woodpecker of 2013. Crayon and watercolor by Ken Januski.

Quite a few years ago we started going for walks on major holidays in the nearby (i.e. one mile away) Wissahickon Valley in Philadelphia. On one of those early walks, probably Christmas but possibly Thanksgiving, we saw a Pileated Woodpecker. Since then every cold weather holiday walk brings the hope of another.

They do nest in this area and 9 of them were found in Philadelphia in the Philadelphia Mid-winter Bird Census of early January. Over the years we've gotten better at finding them, or perhaps and most likely we just bird more. In any case they've become less scarce to us though they're still not an every day or even every month occcurence.

Still we'd seen them regularly at Andorra Natural Area towards the end of 2012. I thought we'd find one there early in 2013 and we could add it to our count of 2013 birds. But no. We didn't find one there or at any of the other nearby locations, including the Wissahickon Valley, where we often find them.

Over the years I've gotten in the habit of keeping a count of the birds I see out on walks so that I can submit them to ebird. At first I used my own abbreviations for species. Then I discovered the codes used by banders in Richard Crossley's recent birding field guide. I didn't bother to memorize them but they often include the first letters of the words of a birds name, for instance PIWA for Pine Warbler. Of course there are overlaps and so not all the abbreviations work like that.

In any case yesterday I was particulary on the lookout for one of the earliest warblers to arrive in Philadelphia, the Pine Warbler, or PIWA. I checked some pine trees in the Wissahickon near the Walnut Lane Golf Course. No such luck. I heard one candidate but decided it was a Dark-eyed Junco. And it was so cold and windy that few birds were making themselves visible.

Then I heard a nearby sound, a combination of squeal and cackle that I associate with Pileated Woodpeckers and Northern Flickers. I assumed it was a Northern Flicker. But then I saw all that black. It was the first Pileated Woodpecker of 2013!

I ended up doing one field sketch. Without a scope though  I needed to put down my binoculars each time I tried to put down some marks on paper. With a scope I can look and draw at the same time. I decided I was just missing too much of the detail of the facial markings. So I then took some photos. I wanted them so that I was clear about the facial markings and how they change as the woodpecker moves his head about.

Above is another Caran d'Ache Neocolor II crayon drawing on Stillman and Birn Delta sketchbook paper (9x12 inches). Eventually I added a bit of white gouache. I also did this with two waterbrushes rather than just using my many watercolor brushes. I'm still having a hard time with them. They always seem to shut off the water supply just when I need it. But it seems like it's worth pursuing them just a bit more because they can be convenient when out in the field.

So why did I mention the banding codes? Because I went searching for a FOY PIWA and found a FOY PIWO. There's much argument about the use of these codes, partially because they're hard to decipher for some, not all abbreviations are what you think they are, and the true names of birds are much more pleasant and resonant. Still once you get used to using them for their convenience it's easy to be amused by finding a First Of Year PIleated WOodpecker when you were searching for a First Of Year PIne WArbler. .

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.

Summer Egret in Neocolor II

Great Egret at Morris Arboretum Wetlands. Crayon and wash by Ken Januski

Sometimes a commission, deadline or other such thing will give me the impetus to stop thinking about what I want to do next and just do it. Such has been the case with the invitation to demonstrate some wet media work on Stillman and Birn sketchbooks next month.

Above is another 9x12 inch Caran d'Ache Neocolor II water soluble crayon work on Stillman and Birn Delta sketchbook paper. Like yesterday I started off with a pencil drawing. I'd say I spent about one hour on it and two hours on the painting. Once I had the egret looking the way I wanted, though his pose looks a bit off now, I started adding color.

I originally bought the Neocolors a few years ago because I wanted a way to quickly add color when working from life outdoors. Sad to say I never got them to work for that and in fact was generally too intimidated to even try.

Instead I used them in the studio after the fact to work from sketches and photos. As with any new medium there is a learning curve. The odd thing about them is that they are a linear medium, a medium that makes marks. But because they are water soluble they're also a shape and mass medium, a medium that makes areas not lines. That is the rub in learning how to use them.

A number of people whose work I've seen online seem to favor using them as a light wash to accompany the strong outlines of a pen or pencil drawing. And that's fine. It may in fact be their most appropriate use. But I find that I want to use them to make a painting. So I start off with the lines of the crayon but soon have a work that is mainly masses of color.

What I like about this, and about being able to use them on the Stillman and Birn paper, is I'm able to do a small scale painting with minimum fuss. I can get many of the richnesses and complexities of oil, acrylic and watercolor on a sheet of paper. And the paper holds up to all the work and all the water. I suspect this is why I think the combination is so good for working through ideas for future paintings.

One thing about the Neocolors is that they are fairly bright. Not everyone will like this. But for me it's just my cup of tea!

Multimedia Grosbeak

Blue Grosbeak at Higbee Beach. Multimedia drawing by Ken Januski.

A few days ago I got an email from Stillman & Birn, makers of high quality sketchbooks, to see if I'd be interested in doing a demo using their sketchbooks at nearby Merion Art and Repro Center.

Before I answered I wanted to go through my Stillman and Birn sketchbooks and reevaluate them. What I found was not a complete surprise: I've used them mainly to make studies for more developed work. Not that I haven't used them for finished work as well.

In fact I've used them for just about everything: ballpoint pen, ballpoint pen and watercolor, pencil, watercolor, pastel, oil pastel and Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Crayons. I've used them for both short studies and more developed work. What's particularly striking is that I can find almost all of these media used in just one sketchbook! That's very unusual I think, to have such a versatile paper.

When I talked to Michael from Stillman and Birn on the phone we decided to follow through on the demo. It will be on Saturday, April 27, 2013 at Merion Art and Repro Center and will particularly stress the multimedia, especially wet media, capabilities of the Stillman and Birn sketchbooks.

It's been a while since I've used them especially for more developed work so I decided yesterday that it was time to get experimenting. Above is a 9x12 sketch on Stillman and Birn Delta paper. I started off with a pencil sketch of a beautiful Blue Grosbeak seen last October at Higbee Beach in Cape May, NJ. I then started adding color with Caran D'Ache NeoColor II Crayons. As I did so I used first a waterbrush then just a regular watercolor brush to pick up the pigment from the crayons and move it around to create patches of color.

I could have made the bird much bigger but I'm not all that fond of bird portraits. I prefer birds situated in the environment in which you really see them - in this case primarily hackberry trees I believe. The problem with using so much of the design for vegetation is that it's easy to make an undifferentiated mess of it. I spent more time on it than I did on the grosbeak. Finally I decided that I needed to add white gouache in order to bring out the light color of the hackberry branches, a color that dominates the scene. That is pretty much the last step here.

I've enjoyed experimenting with the crayons on this paper. And the paper has fared beautifully as it always does. It really holds up to a lot of work and rework. To me that makes it perfect for working through ideas. The fact that it is good quality paper as well means that when I'm finished if I'm happy with the work it can be taken out of the sketchbook and framed as a finished work. I don't have to say: 'Too bad I didn't do it on better paper.'

As I said I enjoyed this. But I think that I can still learn a lot before the demo. So most likely you'll be seeing a number of works in this media over the coming weeks.