Betty
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Viewing 16 posts - 1 through 16 (of 16 total)
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BettyParticipantYour mountains are quite beautiful. You inspired me.in reply to: Capturing Nature’s Color Palettes #670897
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BettyParticipantVery nice.in reply to: Capturing Nature’s Color Palettes #670896
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BettyParticipant
I have tried watercolor before. I never felt that I could accomplish what I set out to do. I've purchased many books and have followed instructions as closely as I could but never seemed to get the results I wanted. I like Liz's teaching method, her demonstrations are clear, and I liked the way she showed how to mix colors and get the colors as close as possible. Liz's explanation for tints, tones and shades was very helpful for me as well, and I've practiced by making a color wheel with primaries, secondaries, and tertiary colors. I made primary & secondary combination squares, and mixed primary & secondary colors. This has been a great experience for me. My bird watercolor was pretty straight forward and I was able to mix the colors that seemed to match the photo reference and added the palette to the border of the picture. I had trouble with the landscape, the sky ended up muddy, and I didn't feel as good about it as I did with the bird. I had so many color mixes and ran out of enough color for each section so I kept making a new mixture and finally gave up trying to put the palette down onto paper. It's such a small painting, 1/4 sheet of 9"x12" paper, how do you ever do it on a full sized page?
in reply to: Capturing Nature’s Color Palettes #670894 -
BettyParticipantTaking a gesture drawing to a refined sketch is not so easy. I found that drawing from a reference photo gives one the opportunity for getting a pretty good drawing as you can use your measuring techniques for putting proper perspective on your drawing and getting negatives spaces accurate makes for a more realistic sketch. I followed Liz's suggestions as she was drawing, then looked at my drawing with blurred vision and tried to get my darkest darks and lightest lights correctly demonstrated.in reply to: Giving Your Drawings Depth #669911
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BettyParticipantYou did very well. Looks good!in reply to: Drawing What You See – Upside Down Drawing #668116
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BettyParticipantMy bird looks OK but it's nothing like the example at all. I started and erased the entire thing several times. I started at different parts, the top of the stem of the grass like Liz did, then from the other side. My bifocal glasses made it hard to do, so I printed a copy of the example to a sheet of paper and laid it flat so I could see it better. That didn't help much, I must have started and erased numerous times. Still all in all the picture I ended up with looks pretty good but it's not like the example in many areas. It was fun but I got pretty frustrated during the process. I think I'll do it again a few times just to see how different each one turns out.in reply to: Drawing What You See – Upside Down Drawing #668115
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BettyParticipantThe negative space and proportional measurement practices are more difficult. I've used the arms length measurements before but wasn't sure what I was looking for when I did it. I used that process on drawing the barn owl from a photo I took last month at a Sportsman's Show we went to in the area. One of the locals is a birds of prey rehabilitator and she comes to many events near where I live and I was able to get some good shots of a barn owl as she walked with it near me. He was absolutely beautiful. The negative space practice was pretty easy for me, I enjoyed this lesson a lot, it was lots of fun.in reply to: Getting the Proportions Right #668075
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BettyParticipant
I found that with my attempts at gesture drawing I tend to try to do some refining of my sketches rather than continuing on to the next subject. I see the importance of getting the gestures down as accurately and as quickly as possible because the subjects move so quickly, such as the song birds and squirrels that frequent my yard. I've included 2 pages; the 1st page has to 2 parts, the top half shows gesture sketches from a window overlooking my bird feeders (that have been taken over by red squirrels) I've tried to capture a few gesture sketches of red squirrels, chickadees and woodpeckers, the bottom half of the page is from a walk in my woods this morning showing scenes from a tree trunk with moss and some kind of mushroom that dried out and puffs out powder when you flatten it, another scene is of geese flying overhead. The mushroom or toadstool, whatever it is, leads to a great question as to finding out just what it is and why it puffs out a brownish powder, questions that lead to other questions that need answering. The 2nd page is from the video with Liz at the bird feeders in Sapsucker Woods. The fox video was very hard to follow as the baby fox was so active. That one was really a challenge. All in all I think gesture drawing is a great practice for every session or as a warm up. I think it is quite fun to do.
in reply to: Capturing Behavior – Gesture Drawing #667779 -
BettyParticipantWhile trying to gesture draw I find myself stopping frequently to refine my marks rather than going on to the next quick sketch. But I can see the importance of doing it often and trying to catch a movement on paper that I would otherwise miss. I think it's rather fun to do. I've included my sketches, the 1st is the video with Liz doing her gesture drawing while at the bird feeder in Sapsucker Woods, I watch the same feeder via Youtube, also on that page I've included the Fox video sketches which were very difficult as the little fox was so active. The second photo is from my window facing my bird feeders.in reply to: Capturing Behavior – Gesture Drawing #667772
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BettyParticipant
Here's the Eastern Red-spotted Newt with contour and glanced at sketches. I see this species of newt every spring at our camp in Upstate New York. They are like fairy creatures, so tiny and cute.
in reply to: Focusing on Your Subject – Blind Contour Drawing #666539 -
BettyParticipant
I found the contour drawing project fun to do. Years ago I taught elementary school age children drawing at a friend's art studio and we always started with blind contour sketching. Another nature journaling artist seen on John Muir Laws art videos on YouTube said she started every drawing session with a blind contour sketch of her hand. My newt and springbuck blind contour sketches are pretty off but the bird and flower aren't too bad. I also included a sketch of each photo with glancing at each picture. I really enjoyed this project.
in reply to: Focusing on Your Subject – Blind Contour Drawing #666538 -
BettyParticipantI've been setting up bird feeding areas around my yard, we have a very large lot in rural NY and we have a lot of birds coming to my feeders. Alas, the squirrels have located my bird diner and have invited themselves to come and partake. I thought that if I also provided them with their own feeders they would narrow their choices to their own table. I'm including an unfinished sketch I started a couple days ago.in reply to: Noticing Themes in Nature #663542
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BettyParticipantI'm including a sketch completed on October 19, 2019. I was sitting at a place in back of our camp in the Tug Hill area, upstate New York. I was at my sit spot in the woods next to camp soaking up the quiet, listening to the rustle of leaves caused by a red squirrel as he was preparing for the winter, I could hear the bird calls echoing around me, yellow, red, and rusty orange leaves were softly drifting in a light breeze to the forest floor all around me. It was beautiful.in reply to: Opening Your Senses #663539
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BettyParticipantI'm including my comparison drawing and remarks about the Downy Woodpecker and the Hairy Woodpeckers that I see at my feeders this winter.in reply to: The Power of Comparison #663498
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BettyParticipantI like drawing from photos to get details from the bird, butterfly or bug or whatever I'm drawing that you can't otherwise get from seeing it in the distance flitting across the sky. You can get general information from looking through binoculars or from a quick glance, such as distinguishing that this bird isn't a gold finch from seeing the absence of the black markings. With this photo I can see that the tree must be an old apple or fruit tree due to the shape of the leaves and the moss and lichen growing on the branch. Plus I can see that the leaves look to be well into the season because they are dark green and a couple leaves have pieces of leaf material missing as though a bug or something took a bite out of it.
I have an old tree similar and I can get the information for a closer look at the actual branch to record a zoomed in section. The zoomed in portion of the first part of the lesson is something new to me. I love that. I can get a really close look at my tree and make an enlarged drawing of it to add to the drawing.
in reply to: Jump Right in! #645667 -
BettyParticipantI've been drawing daily for quite a while, I live in the Syracuse area, we have 43 acres of woods and I generally draw grass, flowers, bugs and little creatures I spot throughout my days. This past summer I had a wren family set up house keeping in a birdhouse near my bedroom window. Each morning after the eggs hatched the "father" bird, I presume, sang on a branch near the window several feet away from where we were sleeping. I was really excited about our new neighbors and I sat outside close enough to watch the pair actively flying back and forth feeding their brood. I decided to draw the tree, birdhouse, and the tiny bird scolding me from a few feet away. I usually try to get photos to copy later on, but I'd like to try my hand at field drawing as described in the lesson discussions. When I received the notification for this class I immediately decided I would take it so I could properly journal my experiences with all the beautiful creatures I see. I'd like to be able to leave something for my grandchildren that I hope they will someday cherish. Thanks Betty (Bee Kay)in reply to: Style Your Journal Your Way #645496
Viewing 16 posts - 1 through 16 (of 16 total)