Speaking of Pennants

Halloween Pennant. Watercolor Sketch by Ken Januski

There was a time in recent memory when you could say pennant in Philadelphia and people would think about the Phillies. But I'm afraid, barring a miracle, that those days are past. Today when I hear pennant, well at least after today, I think of dragonflies.

Anyone who has looked through field guides, bird, dragonfly or anything else has probably experienced the desire to see one or two particular species in the guide. That's been the case with me and the Halloween Pennant. Today I finally saw one at Morris Arboretum. It's the first pennant I've ever seen and my list of species has now gotten up to about 25 I'd guess. Nothing to brag about but at least enough for me to begin to feel like I know my way around a bit. I'm not totally flummoxed by every one I see.

Though I took numerous photos of dragonflies over the last few days I always hate to rely on them. I prefer always to show a sketch or painting. Above is a smallish 9x12 pencil and watercolor sketch on Stillman and Birn Zeta paper. It's the first time I've tried the Zeta paper for watercolor and it's worked very well.

I always avoid painting every feather when I paint birds. In fact I'd probably have a nervous breakdown if I even tried. It seems better to me to know enough about birds and their feathers to be able to use a shorthand to indicate them. But what do you do with the complex venation of dragonflies? Well I haven't found the answer yet. But the watercolor above includes one attempt. I added white gouache to also indicate many of the highlights in the veins.

Halloween Pennant at Morris Arboretum. Photo  by Ken Januski.

Though I'm fairly happy with the watercolor sketch you can see from the photo above just how much I've failed to capture. Since it is such a beautiful dragonfly I decided I just had to show one photo. The one I saw constantly landed on the top of some 2 foot high vegetation. When I got home and read about pennants I found that's typical, and in fact may be the origin of its name.

Slaty Skimmer at Manayunk Canal. Photo by Ken Januski.

Another truly beautiful dragonfly I saw for the first time in the last few days is the Slaty Skimmer above. There is a purple cast to its abdomen that makes it a very striking dragonfly. Though the body is completely black the abdomen is affected by what is called pruinosity , a type of bloom that lightens the color of many dragonflies. I think its soberly elegant slaty black/purple is the perfect complement to the colorful oranges of the Halloween Pennant.

Eastern Amberwing at Manayunk Canal. Photo by Ken Januski.

The second smallest dragonfly in the Eastern US, at least from what I've read, is the Eastern Amberwing. Above is one of the best photos I've ever gotten of it. About a year ago Jerene and I tried to see it as it landed in the water in front of us. But we just couldn't get a good view. And the photos were too small to be much help. The one thing I noticed is that it reminded me of the small planes you tend to see in early movies, biplanes I think. And there was an occasional glint of amber. Now that I have a better photo I see why it reminded me of a biplane. It has both short wings and torso, unlike most dragonflies.

Widow Skimmer at Morris Arboretum. Photo by Ken Januski.

And speaking of elegance above is the Widow Skimmer. Who would have thought that black and white could be so striking?

I don't like to show photos as most readers know. But I've seen such a wealth of handsome dragonflies recently that I decided to succumb to the temptation. Back in the studio I'm still trying to figure out what the next linocut will be.

A Dragonfly a Day

Widow Skimmer. Watercolor sketch by Ken Januski

The woodcut/linocut/reduction linocut went a bit awry yesterday so I took a break and organized my collection of dragonfly photos, including some new ones from the last few weeks. As I looked at them I remembered part of what I found so fascinating about drawing insects when I did so quite a few years ago.

There is a complexity and elegance of structure that's just very desirable to put down on paper. Unlike birds or most animals there aren't any soft, furry, feathery areas that are indistinct and hide the structure. Insects have very visible structures.

It's hard to understand the appeal of this but it may just be something natural to drawing. i.e. drawing is more often about lines than anything else and insects are full of them. Of course with dragonflies there is something extra. They often have the most striking patterns in wings, body or both. Here it's the velvet blacks and blazing white of the wings of this Widow Skimmer that stand out.

I started paying attention to dragonflies and damselflies a year or two ago but it's only now that I can accurately (I think!) name more than ten of them. Naming twenty would be a great stretch. Above is a photo of the first Widow Skimmer I've ever seen. We saw it at Morris Arboretum over the past few weeks. It's a fairly common dragonfly I think and it's also a member of one of the most visible families, the Skimmers. So it's not rare. But it sure is a beauty.

About a month ago I was contorted in a somewhat odd position to take a photo of an unknown butterfly along the Wissahickon. Two runners went by and said "Weird!" as they did so. I suppose it can seem odd to some, to stop and pay attention to the beauty and complexity of nature. But then I have to ask just what is it that others find so much more interesting than nature? I'm sure there are plenty of things. At one point in my life I might have also found them quite interesting, far more so than birds, butterflies and dragonflies. But today I'd just say '"Weird!".

By the way I'm not really starting a  Dragonfly a Day project. These types of projects seem popular online, at least from what I can see. But it is something I could easily see someone more focused on dragonflies than myself taking up! They offer a lot to both viewers and artists.