Susan
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This was really difficult as it required super focus, to follow the lines and shapes. I tried not to see it as a sparrow. But I'm pleased with the outcome, although I think I
used the eraser more than the pencil! I liked the freedom of focusing on the shapes instead of what it was. -
@Avery Beautiful portrait of the owl!
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I don't know what happened to my text! I am trying to focus and use the measuring techniques - good for my attention now during the Covid crises, as I am having some ADD! This little mullein plant attracted me as it is a tiny replica of larger mulleins in the neighborhood. I think it's a mullein? In any case I am having trouble delineating one part of the plant from the next as they all seem to flow together in the actual plant. I tried to keep the drawing life-sized to work on the proportion. Difficult. Will now try to add more shading and color to be clearer with what part is what.
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Gesture drawing was easiest with still subjects! The foxes were amazing but I had to replay many times to get the drawings beyone one little jot! Here are also my bird feeder drawings, that was also hard - especially the birds, very very fast moving. More success with squirrels, also moving but repeat motions. The woodpecker was the most successful to try to draw. I think it's helping me with my observations as I am better able to predict what the next move will be, with the squirrels and the speedy birds. Also more observant of the markings, which I've been pretty lazy about in the past - like, what kind of woodpecker?
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@Claire Hi Claire, thanks for the comment. I didn't use ink, I usedthe twisty erase pencil that we bought for the class. It's pretty dark on the paper and easy to draw with and build up the dark areas. I also used water over the pencil to soften it and smudge. I limited colors because I think we were supposed to be focusing on drawing... and it's easy to get carried away with the watercolors (ok and 1 tube of white gouache to try to get the chalky effect!). I'm way behind on classes, my work has gotten away with me!
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This was a lot of fun. I didn't go outside because it was freezing out, but did the given examples a couple of times each - not perfect but I liked the way worked - I did add the branch and eye of the bird post-exercise...I also did it in my regular notebook because I thought it would be a waste of paper - but it was not.
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These are beautifully rendered. The shading using stippling works really well and you captured the dimensionality and depth in the individual plants. Congrats!
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I like the bark technique! The texture looks so real. I was daunted by the bark on which my lichens were growing so did not focus on it. Now I'll try these techniques next time.
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Here is my comparison study. It's very cold here (on Cape Cod) and so I needed to run in and out of the house to check details. I am fascinated by lichens so I chose two different types growing on the same tree. I found pieces of the lichens (fluffy shrubby one is Usnea "old man's beard" and the flat, lobular is a Parmontrema) in the leaf litter on the ground and brought them inside, as it was impossible to sit outside in the freezing weather. Ended up using a magnifying glass to see exactly what was going on in detail. Challenges were the meticulous tiny details in which the different shading techniques we've learned came in very handy. But also I wanted to indicate the color and couldn't quite capture the chalky quality of their color.
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As a fellow lefty, I can relate! The need to avoid smudging. Nice format to start with!
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1. I used to do a lot of sketching from memory and life, but got out of it as I got busier and busier with photos and film. I observe birds, moss and lichens and nature settings in general. I find myself craving actually using my eyes, hands to draw instead of taking a photo , which is how I've been illustrating my logs and journals. Photography becomes an animal in itself and has a life separate from the observer. tI'm inspired by Bernd Heinrich's thoughtful sketches, as I've reading his books on ravens. 2. I like all of the journal techniques, but especially like Shayna's as a model - it's diverse in media, and organized in info, and the journalistic style appeals to me, with diagrams and drawings coming out of their frames. 3. So far, no... I'm eager to explore through the examples and exercises in this course.
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I've also seen them on Cape Cod where we live in a suburban area near a nature preserve - lots of tall pine and old trees. They forage on the beach at the high and low tide marks, especially around garbage receptacles on the "public beach" - but only when people are not nearby (unlike seagulls which hardly acknowledge humans when they are eating and foraging). I leave peanuts for them early in the morning but rarely do I catch a glimpse of them foraging the peanuts, as they wait until there are no cars in the driveway or no person in sight. Sometimes I've surprised them when by sneaking home suddenly and they raucously scream (in outrage at being disturbed?) and fly away. I've managed to get close - when there is one loner on a rooftop or telephone wire - almost below them - if I make crow sounds and the crow calls back. They are curious. I've also seen large flocks of 30 or so on people's yards, although I don't know what they are eating there. Again, if I stop to watch, they all will fly away, calling.
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In NYC, I see them on rooftops eating scraps - I've seen them eating a pigeon wing left by a red-tailed hawk, as well as pizza crust, and even dog poop - from garbage, sometimes fighting over or playing with scraps of styrofoam or paper. People don't pay much attention to them as they are usually above the eye-line. I can see them from my apt. window on the roof of a school across the street. I can't think of when I've seen one on the ground in our neighborhood, although the scraps come from somewhere. I see what I think is a family or small flock - on top of new high-rise construction - and have seen one feeding others who seem to be begging. They seem to avoid getting too close to people, unlike the starlings, and sparrows, and even the hawks/small raptors.
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Right now I'm on Cape Cod, in E. Dennis. I've noticed a small flock of crows in my territory over the past several years. They seem to all get along and call each other from around the bogs and descend on any dead things washed up by the tide, or peanuts and fallen apples in my yard (very warily!). They are shy around humans. They seem well but I don't see them enough as a group to know. I've never noticed aggression between the American Crows up here. I've seen them harassing red-tailed hawks pretty frequently.
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1. Weakness, as Andrea Townsend points out, lower probability of survival for the inbreed young. Also I would think it would add stress on the parent crows having to provide for all the nestlings - hunting & gathering - when some of them are probably not going to survive already due to their genetics. 2. It's not surprising to me... I think that we humans anthropomorphize when we say "monogamy" or "mating for life" in reference to other species. The concept hardly works for humans. I think they maybe have a main partner but the extra pair-bond copulation could be an evolutionary strategy or maybe just working off some hormonal callings (designed to create these extran pair-bond flings?).
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That's a good analogy! Comparing with young adults who either leave home and strike out on their own, or stick around the "nest" to be nurtured along - ideally while they pursue higher eduation for a better or at least more secure future.
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Yes, in the "Think like a bird" course I was saddened to hear about the hardships of migratory birds and the life or death decisions they have to make regarding territory and breeding, being dependent on weather and specific food sources. Crows don't have to worry about that so much.
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Wow, I know this has nothing to do with crows, but why is the cardinals' nest site so awful? What happens when you put their nest under a shrub?
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Hmmm, same but different? Their longevity and later breeding age means that they don't have to stake out a territory immediately, so can join with their parents to help out, or go to another territory take over someone else's role if one of the pair dies, or "bud" - establish on the fringe of the parental territory. And then when they finally get set up as a breeder, and since they live a long time, this lasts for a while. So I think, maybe easier than other birds that have more stress to establish territory, win a mate, nest at last once during a season, and start all over again the next year.
used the eraser more than the pencil! I liked the freedom of focusing on the shapes instead of what it was. 
is Usnea "old man's beard" and the flat, lobular is a Parmontrema) in the leaf litter on the ground and brought them inside, as it was impossible to sit outside in the freezing weather. Ended up using a magnifying glass to see exactly what was going on in detail. Challenges were the meticulous tiny details in which the different shading techniques we've learned came in very handy. But also I wanted to indicate the color and couldn't quite capture the chalky quality of their color.