I chose salvias for my project. Because of bad weather I picked the flowers from the planter by the front door.. Too rainy and cold to sit outside.  The variety on the left is Black and Blue Salvia.  The color is a very dark purple blue. The variety on  the right is Skyscraper.  It is a pink although it is described as purple on the plant tag.. they are definitely different.  The Black and blue flowers are much shorter than the Skyscraper flowers. The Skyscraper has a cluster of flowers at the top of  the stem. I thought the leaves were smooth along the edge but looking closer I saw they are serated. I think I will be looking closer at what I am drawing and this class helped a great deal.  

I work in fisheries so had some thawing fish heads - My comparison of albacore vs sockeye eyeballs led to a morning spent studying the physiology of the support structure for the two different eyeballs - it was super interesting. I have looked at fish for 25 years and never thought about how the eyes sat in the head and why.

I decided it was too cold for me to sit outside comfortably. I've been doing Feeder Watch and often watch the backyard where I have a water bath and several feeding stations. The Red-breasted Nuthatch that appeared for the first time a month ago has fascinated me. Seeing RBNU in the forest trees is very different. I have been surprised at their tiny size, only 4 inches, smaller and slimmer than the Goldfinches and House Finches that come to my feeder. Everyone says how cute they are with their behaviours of sneaking in so quickly you hardly see them and it's so true. They are adorable! Drawing the 3 birds together I noticed how different their patterns are, how different their bills are even though they are all seed eaters. The Nuthatch has such a long pointed slender bill but I know that's for digging and poking into tree bark for bugs etc. They also hide their food in bark crevices. I think when they fling themselves into my feeder and swoop out so fast I can hardly see them that they are hiding the seeds in the Ponderosa Pine tree that is next to the feeder. I should add the Black-capped Chickadees that come to the feeder to show how large they appear beside the Nuthatch.  I want to do this sketch again but add and compare the BCCH and add some water color paint.

Comparing two snakes that crossed my path today.

I decided to compare two yard plants that I thought would share some similar characteristics.  Turns out that they don’t!  When comparing them, I wasn’t really excited about it.  But in my observations I did notice that the bunnies use the fountain grass as a place to hide out and hang out, so that made it a bit more interesting.

I'm having so much fun with this - and I see so many ways to use comparison studies.  I began with a comparison of two oak leaves.  Honestly, I'd never really thought much about the fact that there are so many different kinds of oak trees.  To start, I randomly picked two different leaves and used them for my first comparison study.  This made me curious to know more about the trees in my area - and I've been learning more about them each day.

I choose late-season wild Snowberry and Rose fruits for my comparison. What I really enjoyed about this exercise is how it made me look for detail and to appreciate the beauty that can be found in natural objects as they start to disintegrate at the end of the season. I especially liked the shape of the curved rose thorns when you look very closely. While snowberries appear white from a distance, when I held them against a the snow, they are actually a light, creamy white. For fun, I tried out the watercolours to add another dimension to the page. It is very hard to make something look white (or creamy white) on a white journal page!

This fall we have had a flock of Clarks Nutcrackers and several Stellar Blue Jays co-habitating in our canyon. At one point we had over 50 Nutcrackers, but the majority of them moved on and about a dozen have stayed and the Jays are staying too. In the four years that we have been here (Salmon Idaho) we have not had Nutcrackers in our canyon so this is very interesting. There are differences and similarities between the two species. Physically they are similar in size.  Socially the Jay is much more aggressive, but the Nutcrackers are very verbal if you invade their space. The Jays seem to be solitary where the Nutcrackers are in a large group, but are paired up. They are both feeding on the Douglas Fir pine cones but the Jays are always looking for a handout at the feeders. A very interesting note; this past spring we planted fifty White Pine seedlings, along with Ponderosa, Lodgepole and Western Cedars. We did this to bring diversity to our DF woodlots but also to attract Nutcrackers (their main source of food is WP seeds).  The seedlings are not producing seeds yet and will not for quite some time, but whenever I tend to the WP seedlings the NC's put up quite a ruckus. Is it possible they were drawn to the canyon by the presence of the seedlings?

  My leaves were not similar but I found the differences interesting.  I enjoyed just really taking tie to look at objects.

I notices different sizes of the shrubs. The configuration of the branches, the relative lightness of the potintella versus the nine bark. It’s the the first perennial garden we created and it will be fun to see how it survives.

I chose two bushes that grow in my yard. I was interested in them because it is now late October and  they are very different. The Mock Orange shows no sign of fall, really. Still green and strong with dark berries. The Burning Bush has turned a gorgeous magenta/red color and has begun to shed its leaves and has bright pink/orange berries. I enjoyed forcing myself to look closer and notice the similarities and differences beyond their obvious colors.

I liked this exercise.  It really helped me concentrate on the details.  Amazing how things look so similar from a distance and then when looking closely how different they really are.

This spring I planted Salvia Victoria Blue and Salvia Red Hot Sally. Although both are salvia the do not look much alike. I did my comparison between the two and found even more differences than I noticed through casual observation. I'm still unsure how they can both be called Salvia other than that they both seem to be in the mint family. I don't have a system yet for recording drawing, writing and numerical data so they are organized for comparison.

I choose two "mates", that stand in the park for as long I remember. They are: a Gingko biloba tree and a Hibiscus bush, with light pink flowers. But... I wasn't sure about the name of the flowers (!). Then I checked: hibiscus. It's autumn and the flowers are blossoming, in a beautiful pink and green composition; I could see fully blossomed flowers and about-to-blossom ones. I had never looked at these flowers with such a detail. I was marveled by the delicate petals and the five dark pink dots, every flower has. I am curious to search for more scientific information, about hibiscus. I had searched for Gingko biloba, in the past. Yet, comparing it's leafs with the hibiscus petals was an interesting exercise. Also, it allowed me to look closer at the colors of the leafs, texture and how smooth they are. Balancing drawing and writing is something I'm still learning; I don't think I have found my style yet, although I usually prefer to draw in one page and write on the adjacent one, if possible. In this exercise, I draw and wrote notes on the same page. I haven't used colors yet, as I's like to know more, before I use them.

I focused on two plants in my back yard...but in drawing them and making my observations, I was taken back on a journey to my high school biology class. I needed to research, and then added to my comparison study, the reproductive parts of a plant.  It was a wonderful journey.  

I learned to look closer. I've always had those flowers around but never noticed the inner of the flower nor how the color blends smoothly. I would always try to draw, write and notice numerical data because it clarifies so much about the flower.

I liked doing the comparison study.   It made me really look at each flower and each leaf.  I am searching for my style and decided to try the boxes and I like them. 

Making comparisons allowed me to hone in on observations I may have overlooked.

First, it's October and still in the 100's, so my garden is hot and tired, much like I am.  I found two flowers to compare and my dogs encouraged me to clip them and finish the work inside.  I didn't have a plan, but words formed around my image in a cluster, much the same as the flowers grew.  It was fun to look closely and see the similarities and differences.  Shape and color stood out the most.  Most plants good for Arizona have tiny leaves, so I'm guessing this vine has grown so well because it has shade.

I chose 2 flowers to compare. It's fall now, but I was surprised to find there were flowers out still. I did enjoy doing a comparison study, because I think I noticed details that I wouldn't have otherwise, and it allowed me to think about the purpose of flowers. That is, to attract pollinators so the plants can produce seeds. The first frost is probably coming soon, so these late bloomers will need to make seeds soon if they want to have offspring next spring. I don't know too much about plants, so perhaps there is a strategy here that I'm not aware of. Anyway, I would have liked to do a comparison study with some kind of animals, but unfortunately they move too much and I think I wouldn't notice a whole lot unless I spent hours observing. I think this exercise will equip me for the next observations going forward. They certainly reminded me how to think like a scientist!

Enjoyed doing this. The exercise of posing questions from what you are looking at was good and will be really helpful away from home. Even sitting in my backyard, comparing herbs that I use in cooking was enlightening.

1. I went outside and picked 2 branches with different leaves from my backyard. It was cold and my son wanted to stay inside, so the compromise was that we would stay in, but that I would draw while he played. I learned going back and forth between my 2 examples. Whenever I noticed a detail on one, I would check for a similar element on the other, and so on. I ended up observing much more than what I anticipated. I also picked a maple branch with leaves that were pretty much dead. I was surprised by my own choice... and how much beauty I found in something that was past its prime.  2 - I realize that drawing first and writing around the drawing flows better for me. I might just keep a page for writing and another for my drawings and light notes.