Big Flycatcher Delays Tiny Shoveler

Northern Shoveler at 'The Meadows' of Cape May. Multiple Block Reduction Woodcut by Ken Januski.

Northern Shoveler at 'The Meadows' of Cape May. Multiple Block Reduction Woodcut by Ken Januski.

One reason we didn't go out to see the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher at Bartram's Garden over the weekend, when any sane person would have gone, was that I was involved in this tiny two-block, reduction woodcut.

It is just 5x6 inches including the borders, and 4x2.5 inches for just the woodblock itself. Who would think you could get so involved with such a tiny, little thing? But you can. And I've enjoyed it. I've liked woodcuts and linocuts since I first started them three years ago. But I'm still finding my way with them, looking for a method that both gives me the results I want but also doesn't drive me crazy with all the technical complexity, or endanger my health with unhealthy fumes.

Two of my favorite prints were also the most difficult and the most nerve-wracking, The Blackburnian Warbler and the Green Heron with Twelve-spotted Skimmer.They were total improvisation from start to finish.

Since then I've tried various other methods, always with the original intent of keeping the process simple. It didn't always turn out that way though.

A few months ago I bought a Shina Plywood Grab Bag. It includes numerous very small pieces of Shina Plywood. They seemed perfect for experimenting and so that's how I got started here. At first this was just a one block, one color experiment.

But once I was done with seeing the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and doing a watercolor based on it I wanted to get back to this. To make a long story short I printed two colors on the original woodblock then flipped it over and printed four more. It is finally done.

In many ways I prefer this to the flycatcher watercolor. I think that's because it is a separate, almost abstract painting, while at the same time being fairly accurate in portraying a Northern Shoveler. Prints and particularly woodblock prints seem to lend themselves to this method.

So I'll keep at it and keep experimenting.

This is an edition of 12 on Rives Lightweight paper and will eventually be for sale on my Etsy store.

Sketching the Natural Wealth of Cape May, Part Three

Tri-colored Heron and Palm Warbler in Goldenrod. Field Sketch by Ken Januski.

Continuing on an old theme here I'm showing some field sketches from a recent trip to Cape May. Sadly it seems each trip produces fewer field sketches even though my skills are better each time I visit. This time I can blame it partially I think on the colder weather of this time of year, though even then we had some days of weather in the high 60s/low 70s, quite a warm temperature for late October/early November.

Above is a Tri-colored Heron, fishing at Fish Dock Road I believe it's called though I normally just call it Two Mile Landing for the restaurant at its end. We don't see Tri-colored Herons that often so they are always a treat. This pose was particularly striking for the way the heron was stretched out just about to pounce.

We of course see many Palm Warblers, though more in spring than fall. And we're fortunate to get the golden yellow ones rather than the blah brown/gray ones of the Midwest. But I like this one perched and feeding in the goldenrod along the beach at Cape May Point State Park. Unfortunately I only had time to get his head before he moved.

Black Skimmer, Gadwall, Tri-colored Heron. Field Sketch by Ken Januski.

We were fortunate to have a motel room facing the ocean and at very reasonable prices due to the time of year. From there I could set up my scope and scan before breakfast. One morning I saw over 30 Black Skimmers, though at a distance. Scoter were also visible in the distance. Then one morning as I scanned the gulls on the beach I found something different, a handsome Black Skimmer. That is him at top, just before he flew. He's the first of Birds with Too Big Bills in this post. Not shown here, sadly is one of the many Northern Gannet that appeared the morning that we left. I had no time to try to capture at least one of them on paper.

Ducks were everywhere and I wish I'd sketched more of them. Above is jut one attempt at a Gadwall in the pond at 'The Meadows.' Beneath him another sketch of a Tri-colored Heron at Fish Dock Road. As I sketched him a long-billed bird swam in front of him. I couldn't place him then realized it was a Clapper Rail as it climbed up on shore. I called over Jerene to see one of her favorite birds. As she looked in the scope another rail appeared and the two squabbled among themselves before disappearing. So sadly I lost the chance to sketch them.

Brown Thrasher, Ring-necked Duck, Northern Harrier. Field Sketch by Ken Januski.

One morning at Higbee Beach we were treated to numerous Brown Thrashers, many of them at the beginning of the trail. I was thrilled to be able to see them so long and do a good field sketch, until I looked at what I'd done that is. How had I managed to make such an elegant bird look so dumpy? One thing was that he seemed to have almost a hunched back and I tried to capture that. But overall his elegance is completely lost. Perhaps I'll regain it in a print or painting. Later in the day we saw our first Ring-necked Duck of the year. I haven't checked but I think this sketch probably looks almost identical to the one I did a few years ago a the same place, the pond in front of the hawk watch platform at Cape May Point State Park. Again I have to ask how the bird ended up so dumpy!? Still they, and all the birds we saw, were thrilling to see.

There had been a somewhat rare Swainsons Hawk seen at Cape May a day or two before we arrived. I wasn't really thinking of it as the lanky bird at bottom of page moved slowly toward us. At first I thought it was an osprey, though I thought most had already left. As he got closer I saw the colors were wrong. Then I noticed the white/light breast and very dark head and throat. That combined with lanky wings, and a bit of wishful thinking, convinced me that the Swainsons Hawk had returned. But I was still a bit cautious. When I got home and looked at our guides I realized too many things just didn't add up. Finally as I looked at Richard Crossley's recent Raptor ID Guide I saw a picture that pretty much matched what we'd seen and I'd sketched: a Northern Harrier seen directly from below, and much higher than normal. That explained why the throat was dark and not light as it should have been.

While we were out we ran into all sorts of birders who would call up an app on their phones to check the ID of a bird. It was alarming. These apps have  so little information, at least from what I can see as they show them to me. I wonder how many birders would have used them to turn our Northern Harrier into a Swainsons. One thing I find so fulfilling, and Jerene does as well, is really looking at birds and figuring out what they really are, not what we want them to be. For that sketching is invaluable.

Many birding books suggest never looking at a guide after seeing a bird. First really look at it and take notes so you can trust what you have seen. Then look at a guide to help determine the ID. Phone apps seem even worse for tricking people into the wrong ID. They get just a hint of something and then go find something vaguely similar and label the bird. I really don't see the point of these apps but then I don't really see the point of cell phones period so I suppose it's no surprise. Even with my bias against them though its hard for me not to think that they do more harm than good. Perhaps some day someone will convince me otherwise. In any case the instance of the Swainson's Hawk turned Northern Harrier seems to me a good example of why you should first observe and then take notes before you begin to pin a label on a bird.

Northern Shoveler. Photo by Ken Januski.

Last year I did a small watercolor based on three Northern Shovelers that we'd seen at Brigantine/Forsythe NWR. I only had a few photos and even fewer field sketches to go on. And the bills just seemed abnormally large in the finished painting. This time we got to see quite a few Shovelers. It was a great surprise to see how small a duck they really are. This surprised us day after day. There larger appearance I think is really caused by their bill, one that I think the photo above shows at its true size, one even larger than in my watercolor!

Something New - Northern Shovelers

Northern Shovelers at Brigantine. Watercolor by Ken Januski

It's a wonder what a deadline will do. I've always had mixed feelings about whether such pressures helped or hindered artists. When I was younger and more romantic about the nature of art I leaned toward the former - a real artist needs total freedom. As I got older and in fact not too much out of my youth I began to disagree with this and see that the most freedom and innovation comes when working against a constraint - deadline, patron or whatever.

Still it's one thing to know it in theory and another to actually experience it. As I've prepared for various shows, particularly over the last few years, I've found that the pressure to get something done has often prompted me to try something new. For me this time around that means working from photos, both in the last Cape May Warbler watercolor and in this Northern Shovelers watercolor.

With ducks in particular it's so easy to get hypnotized by the complex patterns in the feathers. But I've tried to avoid that here and just get a sense of the ducks and their beautiful black heads and long bills. When I did the sketch for this it almost looked like a mistake. Those bills were just TOO long. But that's the way they are. I think they look large in the actual painting but not monstrously so.

There's a good chance this painting is done. I have a tendency to overwork watercolor so I'm tempted to just leave it as it is. If I get it framed in time it should be in the Members Show at the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center, which opens this Sunday.

Duck Sketches

My recent watercolors of Northern Shovelers left me disappointed. I realized that part of this might have been due to the fact that I really don't know ducks all that well, either through seeing them or through drawing them. Sometimes when that happens I have a tendency to just go ahead and paint them anyway trusting that some magical powers of the brush coupled with my past artistic experience will pull off the little trick of making it look like I know what I'm about.

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It didn't with those two watercolors so I decided to devote some time to doing detailed sketches of ducks. My hope was that it would improve my knowledge of ducks. Today's results are above. All are based on photos I took. They include the same Northern Shoveler from the watercolors in both sketches. Also included are two Wood Ducks seen at the Wissahickon in Philadelphia a couple of years ago and a Blue-Winged Teal seen at Horicon Marsh this fall.

As I've said many, probably too many times, I don't like working from photos. But as Colleen C. said recently on bird forum: better photos than dead birds as older artists used to use. Before binoculars, telescopes and cameras the only way to see the details of most birds was to have dead specimens. Looked at from that perspective it doesn't see all that bad.

But photos are always deceptive. No one actually sees as a camera does. We see much more dynamically and our other senses at the scene contribute to the overall visual impression. Photos don't have this. So they are useful for studying detail at times, especially in the colder months of the year when it's harder to work outside, but I'd be a lot happier to be drawing them as I looked at them in my scope. Next spring, or hopefully earlier.

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

What could be a better image of the pleasures of Thanksgiving and the vibrant colors of fall, not yet dulled down to the grays of winter, than this Jolly Jester Marigold from our garden?
Normally it would be blasted by Thanksgiving but this is the first year in many where it's Thanksgiving and we still haven't had a killing frost.

When we do get a killing frost though these Red Russian Kale should still be just fine, snugged away in their cold frame (as long as I build a top for it soon!).

Meanwhile during this 4-day holiday I'll see if I can't come up with a better version of this Northern Shoveler seen at Horicon Marsh in September, 2009. I keep getting lost in the complex feather pattern and my 15-30 minute watercolor turn to 60 minute muddycolors. I wasn't going to post these but I hate to post just photos. They look so empty to me compared to actual artwork!
Watercolors really look best when they're crisp. These aren't but it remains my goal.

Happy Thanksgiving! A great day to realize all that you have to be thankful for!