Moku Hanga in Progress, and in London for SWLA

Spotted, Solitary and Least Sandpipers. Working  proof  of  moku  hanga print by Ken Januski.

I'm not sure if I've ever shown a work in progress from my Moku Hanga prints. But I easily could. That's because they take forever. I'm now on week three of this print. And I still don't have the final design, or colors. But  I'm getting close.

I had been planning to write my next post on my field sketches, both those done at Cape May in May and also those done around  here. But having three of my works in The Society of  Wildlife Artist's  annual show 'The Natural Eye': Purple Finch and Hairy Woodpecker at Andorra' has been a bit of a distraction, though certainly a pleasant one.

The three framed works waiting to be shipped off to 'The Natural Eye', accompanied  by  the  hope  that at least one of them would get in!

I'll go on a bit more about  the SWLA show later but for now I'll try to finish a thought and stick with this print. Though not a field  sketch it is based on and inspired by them.I think it was in May that I did some field sketches of both Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers at Morris Arboretum. They ended up being somewhat clumsy works but they still captured the life of the birds. And as I've said probably a million times over the course of this blog it's next to impossible for me to get that feeling of life when I'm working from photos. So it's much easier for me to be inspired by my sketches though I often will use my photos to at least see the details, and  then decide how important it is  to try to get them into the work. In this instance I also added two Least Sandpipers which I'd also seen and sketched  at Morris Arboretum in  previous years.

Once I get started on a work, particularly a print, though it used to be just as true in my large abstract paintings, my main concern becomes the orchestration of shapes, colors, textures,  and movement. Often I get seduced by the colors, shapes, etc. and find I've gotten too far away from the original impetus. So  I find it's always a dialogue/dance/or whatever you want  to call it between the original impetus and the logic and poetry of  the medium itself. I think that is why they always take so long for me to complete.

When it comes to most wildlife art, and again to repeat something I've said a million times, I  often find that it seems to get all of its emotional resonance from the reaction to  a PHOTO of something not to the real thing. That is why I love 'The Natural Eye'. Once again viewing the online gallery this year I find it positively thrilling. The art about nature  should  be as exciting as nature, or  even moreso in that it combines  the excitement of  both art AND  nature. It was particularly thrilling to be able to walk through  it in person last year both to admire and enjoy all the art work that was in it but also to honestly assess whether my own work really belonged there  or  perhaps  had gotten there by some fluke, twist of fate or whatever. Almost all artists and some time doubt themselves. I'm happy to say that I  left feeling that my work did  hold its own!

But that is not what is most important. What's most important  is  that this show demonstrates that it's quite possible to make the most ambitious, exciting, moving art possible all using wildlife as its subject. The Society of Wildlife Artists should be proud of themselves for coming up  with such a rewarding exhibit year after year.

First Shorebirds of Spring

Solitary Sandpiper at Morris Arboretum. Watercolor Sketch by Ken Januski.

Spotted Sandpiper at Manayunk Canal. Watercolor Sketch by Ken Januski.

This time of year it's easy to be totally distracted by the often brief appearance of the neo-tropical migrants, like warblers, orioles, etc. Often they also are very boldly colored in yellow, red, orange, blue, etc. The shorebirds are less common, unless you live near the right body of water, or shoreline. And often they are around a bit longer.

And of course they are easier to see. If you're an artist it's a thrill to be able to see the entire bird, not just a wingbar, or a partial face. I think that's one reason I like seeing them and sketching and painting them. But they also offer an artistic challenge. Their shape, markings and colors are subtle. As I've mentioned many times I'm not to concerned with capturing the subtlety of markings, most of which aren't visible to the naked eye except with the help of optics. But shape is always there, and it is subtle.

We used to have the hardest time differentiating Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers with their large eyerings and bobbing tails. But over time it has become easy. The Solitary is so much more fragile and elegant looking. The Spotted is often clunky and ungainly. So I enjoy trying to get that difference down, even in these quick pencil and watercolor sketches(based on photos I took). For all the ungainliness of the Spotted though I think it is my favorite, if I were to actually have to choose between these two most welcome visitors.

And I should add, that I didn't title this 'First Shorebirds of 2016'. The reason for that is that the Killdeer is here even during winter.

Brush Painting and Brush Pen Painting

Adult and Juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Brush Painting by Ken Januski.

I continue on my seemingly never-ending digression into Chinese brush painting and painting with a Sumi brush pen. I had originally tried a brush pen last summer because I wanted to experiment with line weight and shape in my woodcuts and linocuts, a la ukiyo-e woodblocks.

I soon found though that to create variety in line weight and shape using a brush requires a mastery far beyond me. I had to just stumble along. In the process I got more and more interested in brush painting itself, though more in the Chinese tradition than in the Japanese surprisingly.

As I looked more at Chinese brush painting in particular I appreciated how often rich almost coloristic paintings could be made with just the black ink of an ink stick and various amounts of water. But this then becomes much more of a painting than a drawing, as much or more about areas of ink as lines of ink.

The two drawings at top, both done today, have Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers as their subject. The one on the left is an adult male. The one on the right is the far less colorful immature sapsucker. But the richness of color, especially the dirty dishwater 'yellow' belly, is what convinced me to use a brush, with its various values of black and gray, rather than just line. I almost certainly will never use what I've learned in a print, mainly because it is so painterly. But the beauty of ink washes was just too much to resist.

In the western tradition artists as varied as Rembrandt and Richard Diebenkorn were masters of wash drawings, and I've always loved them. It is amazing what you can do with black and white and gray!!

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher at Bartram's Garden. Brush Pen Painting by Ken Januski.

Most of my work of the last week or more however has been done with a brush pen. Here line is king and it is very useful to force yourself to see birds or any other object strictly in terms of line. I do think this type of linear drawing is at the heart of most art of most cultures. Because ink is so unforgiving you either have to get the line right the first time or find some convincing way to either repair it or make it seem unimportant. This type of drawing can be a bit nerve-wracking since it is so easy to make mistakes. But it also forces you to take chances, to force yourself a bit further than you want to go. I've never been a big believer in the True Art Involves Taking Chances philosophy but in moderation it is often both useful and invigorating. Above the subject is a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher seen at Bartram's Garden.

The rest of the brush pen drawings below are pretty well explained by their captions. Most are done in less than five minutes. This is almost inevitable when you're using a brush pen. The lines move incredibly quickly and if you let your pen rest on the paper you'll soon have a blob rather than a crisp line. So the drawings/paintings move very quickly.

Snowy Egret at Jake's Landing. Brush Pen Painting by Ken Januski.

Spotted Sandpiper. Brush Pen Painting by Ken Januski.

In the drawing above I've tried to capture something that I always notice when looking at Spotted Sandpipers, their relatively thick and blunt bill. That's really all I was trying to show here, along with the combined horizontal lines of the front leg and the back underside of the bird. Sometimes something as simple as that seems worthwhile trying to get down on paper.

Juvenile Tri-colored Herons at Heinz NWR. Brush Pen Painting by Ken Januski.

FOY Warbling Vireo in Paperbark Birch. Brush Pen Painting by Ken Januski

Above I was interested in showing how the first of year Warbling Vireo was making a very common bird movement, wiping the side of his bill on a branch. If you've seen many birds you'll realize how common this is. As well I like the visual element of all the catkins and tried to capture that.

In the drawing below my only real goal was to try to capture the oversized legs of the Willet. I think I was successful at that but I made the torso itself a bit short and out of proportion. Still it looks like a Willet and so I decided to show it.

Willet at Reed's Beech. Brush Pen Painting by Ken Januski.

Wilson's Snipe at Ottawa NWR. Brush Pen Painting by Ken Januski.

Finally one of a number of Wilson's Snipe seen on some cold and wet days at Ottawa NWR a couple of falls ago right before thecongressional Republicans shut down the government and the nation's wildlife refuges. I do remember that Mr.'TrustTed' Cruz!

Return to Lino, Video and Field Sketch

Green Heron and Eastern Pondhawk. Linocut Proof by Ken Januski

I've finally returned to lino after a fairly lengthy absence. If I wasn't running short of woodclocks I might have started work on a woodblock rather than a linoleum block. But before I forget about the differences between the two it seemed like a good idea to try linocut once again.

This is about the fourth proof of a 4x6 inch print. Right now it's printed on copier paper. It's also based on a photo I took last year of a Green Heron with an Eastern Pondhawk perched a few feet away. Apparently it was far enough away, or just too small, to catch the heron's interest. If I recall correctly I saw it at the Manayunk Canal.

My original intent here was to cut one block more or less realistically printing primarily black outlines. Underneath that I would print abstract blocks of color, mainly for the heron and dragonfly.  But as I worked on it I was reminded of my old Osprey linocut with watercolor. It was a very simple, very small print where I painted each print in watercolor after I'd printed the black outline. It's something that I might experiment with here.

That print, along with my print of nine robins, is one of my most popular in terms of sales. My more ambitious prints artistically often seem to do little in the ways of sales. It seems people like their nature art simple. Or perhaps not. In any case I'm tempted to stop work on this soon, print it, and then add watercolor.

Spotted Sandpiper, Killdeer, Great Blue Heron, Canada Gosling. Field Sketches by Ken Januski.

Yesterday I was also at the Manayunk Canal hoping to see a Spotted Sandpiper. I was shocked to read today that no one knew where Spotted Sandpipers built their nests until the early 1900s when someone hunting eggs for a collector noticed an odd looking bird going high into a robin's nest. Of course it wasn't a robin's nest.

In northwest Philadelphia, not a popular shorebird destination, the shorebirds I see most frequently are Solitary Sandpipers, Spotted Sandpipers and of course Killdeer. At first, particularly in fall, Jerene and I had a hard time separating out the two tail-bobbing shorebirds, the Spotted and the Solitary. But over time I've realized that the Solitary is far more elegant, and the Spotted, at times looks almost comical.

He does look a bit comical I confess in my field sketch above but that's because I made the head far too large for the body. In real life he seems comical both for his quick movements and for the way he moves his legs. The closest analogy I can think of is Groucho Marx when he crouches down low and takes long strides. Recently I saw such a Spotted Sandpiper combining these two movements - long low strides with very quick movements - along some rocks on a tributary of the Wissahickon at Morris Arboretum. It was almost unbelievable and I wished that I had my camera with me so that I could capture it on video.

Since Spotteds seem to frequent the canal I was hoping to find one yesterday. As I looked at and sketched a Killdeer  I noticed other movement, closer to me. When I put down my binoculars I realized that it was a Spotted Sandpiper. So I've included a short video below. Oddly enough my relatively inexpensive point and shoot camera is good at taking videos, at least in my estimation. When we saw the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in Philadelphia last year and I was taking a video another birder with a much more expensive camera said he thought mine was actually easier to use when taking videos. Who knows? In any case I've found it handy on those rare occasions when I wanted to take a video.

I think it's interesting to compare the visual technologies at work in this post. The most primitive of course, is drawing from life. Though the proportions are off in the Spotted Sandiper I love the sense of life in the drawings. I couldn't resist trying to capture the Canada Goose gosling as it tried to walk, all the while of course trying to avoid the accompanying goose poop, a reason that Canada Geese are not all that popular. The linocut, at least in the rough way I do it, is almost equally primitive. And then of course there is the much more modern video. They all have their place. But as you know it's the first two that are my favorites.

Local Bird Activity

With the weather back down to the 70s from the mid-80s it's the perfect time to be outside. So I and my wife couldn't resist checking out some of our local birding spots, most within a mile of our home. The proximity and variety of good birding areas is always somewhat shocking to me given that we live in Philadelphia, one of the largest cities in the U.S.
In any case yesterday we walked along the Manayunk Canal, just down the hill from where we live. The biggest surprise were two Spotted Sandpipers, one of which is at top of sketch above. Though Green Herons are common here I think the one pictured above is the first we've seen in Philadelphia this year. Yellow Warblers as well as Baltimore Orioles are both common at the canal. But the striking yellow of one, and orange and black of the other are always a great pleasure to see, exhibiting the celebratory colors of summer.
As you can imagine, and as I've written over the years, I always want to portray some of that beauty and my reaction to it. I used to feel I needed the camera to capture this, and then I could get some faint semblance in art based on the photo. But now I'm much more likely to draw what I see even when the bird is long gone. That's what I've done above. I'm getting much more to trust myself, so will spend a short time looking at bird, then try to sketch it, often not looking up for a minute or two. If the bird is still there then great, I can confirm what I've put down and try to refine it. But if not at least I've gotten something. At home I'll compare it to photos I have.
The most surprising thing about these sketches is that I didn't do the Baltimore Oriole until I got home. The page looked empty, I'd wanted to sketch one of the orioles we'd seen but didn't have time, even though I had noted certain aspects of it that I often seem to get wrong in drawing it. In any case I added this sketch about 5 hours after seeing the bird.
I'm sure that this can be overdone, relying too much on generalizations and not enough on actual looking. But I've always had the opposite problem, looking too much and only getting an unrecognizable line or two down. On top of that I never had a general impression of the bird which could help me flesh out the sketch. So I'm happy with my growing ability to generalize. My guess is that all talented field sketchers use a combination of both methods.

I've shown the left hand side of the pages above previously. But I liked all the bird activity shown when I included the left side so I've shown the full two page spread. On left a male Hairy Woodpecker feeding a grub to a youngster. On the right a Yellow-throated Vireo at top. This is a bird we rarely seen and one I hope will remain here to breed. It just calls out to be painted with its yellow throat and spectacles, and white belly but I'm not going to touch the sketch. Perhaps I'll do another based on this that I can then add color to.
Below the vireo is the star of the show, a Northern Mockingbird seen at Houston Meadows. He exhibited behavior I've never seen before, jumping forward on the ground and flashing open his wings. It was fascinating to see and I assume was meant to scare up prey. When we got home I found a number of photos of such behavior in my various guides. One showed something I'd missed here: a real lunge forward with one leg much in front of the other and the torso more horizontal than vertical. It makes me want to get back to the meadows and see if I can study this behavior more. It just calls out for a painting or print.
Almost all of these birds are local breeders, the only possible exception being the Yellow-throated Vireo and Spotted Sandpipers. But as I said in a previous post June and breeding season can be a fascinating time. Most of the migrants have now gone through and only the summer residents remain. But they're a pleasure to see and to portray.

Pleasures of Summer Shorebirds

I continued my quest for more live field sketching today and was able to convince my wife to do the same! We spent about 2 1/2 hours at Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia. We hoped that we'd finally see a Green Heron there and sure enough we saw one very quickly and were able to get many looks and do a number of live sketches.

But the most exciting part of the trip was shorebirds. We're still beginners with shorebirds. We tend to see them at Cape May in the fall and this year in the spring. So we've finally started to at least have a handle on them. We generally can at least differentiate a sandpiper from a plover. As I've continued to read about them one truism I've run across is that they're migrating back south by July. But we never see them in summer. Maybe we would if we went to the shore in July. But we just don't see them in Philadelphia. 07.13.09 edit -> I should say "we don't see them." Others might. If we spent more time at Tinicum in summer I'm sure we'd see more shorebirds there. In fact we may need to test that theory very soon.

One of the pleasures of birding is when you actually see something that you've read about. That happened today when we found five species of shorebirds: Killdeer, Greater Yellowlegs, Spotted Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, and Pectoral Sandpiper. The more we looked the more we found. I assume that all, except possibly the six Kildeers, were migrating. We had to puzzle through the Pectoral but I'm pretty sure that's what it is. It was smaller than normal but fieldmarks indicate that it's a female, which is smaller and migrates in mid-July. The sheet of Killdeer drawings includes the Pectoral in the upper right corner.

After looking at more guidebooks, getting a suggestion that it is a juvenile Pectoral, and looking at my notes (e.g. olive legs, always crouched, etc.) I'm now wondering if this could have been a Least Sandpiper. The clean line that ended the streaking on the breast convinced me it was a Pectoral. But it did seem sort of large for a Pectoral (which is one reason I thought female which are smaller), it was often in a crouched position like a Least, and the legs were sort of olive. And they seem to be early migrants based on what I've read. So many things point to a Least. Except the clean line on the breast streaking, which still indicates a Pectoral. So even with all my sketching and notes it may remain unknown for certain.

There's also a bad sketch of a Solitary Sandpiper. What's worst about it is that I've lost all of the white on head and neck. So it's both dull to look at and wrong in fact. Nonetheless I noted enough details as I drew it to clearly identify it when I went to the guidebook.

Which leads me to another reason to sketch birds: so that you SEE them better. There is an ongoing discussion on the PA Audubon birding list today about whether it might be wise to buy a good camera before good binoculars if you have an interest in birds. Most people chose binos, and I certainly would, but some people suggested a camera. My suggestion: buy the best binocular you can buy, and a sketchbook. Drawing a bird forces you to LOOK at a bird and make decisions about fieldmarks that you don't have to do with binoculars and surely don't with a camera. I was even reading elsewhere about people shooting photos and then going home and comparing them to a guidebook to figure out what they'd seen. This seems crazy! The beautiful thing about sketching, regardless of your ability, is that it forces you to look more closely.

I was tempted to ask the person who wanted advice on binoculars or camera if he wanted to bring home anything from the experience. If you want to bring home a trophy a camera will work, though you'll probably be unhappy with the quality of your trophy. It's not that easy to get a good photo. But if you want to bring home a better understanding of birds, an improved ability to identify them, and maybe an art work, then buy yourself high quality binoculars, AND, a sketchbook!