Colleen
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Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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It definitely turned out better than I expected, although it was not perfect -- for example, the twig was not as angled as it was "supposed" to be so the leg on the right didn't turn out as long as in the sample provided. But on the whole I am pretty pleased. It was a good exercise, but I do wonder about the usefulness of trying to replicate exactly the lines/squiggles on the breast of the bird. It was also definitely easier to draw this bird from the black-and-white sketch provided than if we had been asked to draw it from a photo!!
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Well I definitely did better with the ducks and with birds than with mammals such as the foxes (which were incredibly cute btw), which is probably due to the fact that I have had a little more practice with drawing birds although I clearly have a long way to go. I practiced drawing doves at our feeders -- there were eleven of them today -- from the window inside as it was still pretty chilly but they were close enough and busy walking around so they gave me plenty of poses to choose from. I really hope to learn to refine this ability, in particular to learn how to pick out the relevant lines that help define the subject and delineate the movement so that in just a few lines the whole can be captured and clearly communicated to the viewer. I have noticed that even when you think your subject is sitting still -- they are not.
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It is still too cold to do anything outside here, where I live. I collected a group of tiny coniferous cones that were all attached together on a branch (group of branches) on the ground where they had fallen, and used these in a comparison with a larger pine cone. The pine cone was a little smaller than fist sized and the group of 9 small cones were similar or just a little smaller than the pine cone. I wish I knew what kind of tree the tiny cones were from (they are not hemlock, as I do know what those are like). I honestly can't say what I learned from this, aside from careful observation of details which I think I would have done just from the fact of drawing them anyway.
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Agree with other's comments that taking the time to draw encourages focus on the details of the bird that might have been overlooked if I had just snapped a photo and filed that away. Still, I can't draw as well as I expect myself to be able to and it's hard to be satisfied with the end result so this is something that I will have to work on -- that is, I will both have to work on improving my drawing abilities as well as work on being satisfied with less than perfect results since I don't want to get discouraged and give up because my journal is not "picture perfect". I have watched a few videos about bird drawing techniques and my bird is still not satisfactory. Even though I do know what a Yellow Warbler looks like, I was surprised to notice the slightly darker shading around the back of the head and back, since I tend to think of them as "all yellow"....if I hadn't been drawing this one I probably wouldn't have seen that.
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1/ What inspired me? Well I have to admit that when I signed up for this course I wasn't exactly sure what constituted a "nature journal" and after this lesson I have a much better idea and am much more inspired! We bought a cottage a few years ago and I have had more time to spend there kayaking and hiking and love observing the amazing nature and seasons as they change. At the same time I recently signed up for some beginner art lessons but found myself frustrated as I felt uninspired and unsure of what exactly I wanted to draw or paint. I DID know that what they were teaching was NOT what I wanted to learn and gradually realized that I had more interest in learning to use art to capture plants and birds around me and thus decided to sign up for this course as a way to learn more about how I could do that. We also enjoy travelling (most recently to the amazingly lush rainforest area of Costa Rica -- our fourth trip) and I want to be able to use art to allow me absorb and record what I see when we do. 2/ It was wonderful toto see a variety of other journals and approaches to nature journalling in order to understand what it is, and also to see a range of skill levels and art abilities so beginners like myself are a little less intimidated! I appreciate the idea of recording place, time and even weather as well as some observations in print (not all has be visual!) as a reminder of the day. I was amazed at Holly's journal -- that is goals. One day I would like to be able to draw in such detail! I appreciated and would consider making a "month at a glance" type picture-journal to record the changes that seasons bring (we have very noticeable seasonal changes where I live!). I also will cut myself some slack and allow some less-than-perfect or incomplete sketches to exist as records of what I saw, as the woman with hummingbird drawings and the gentleman with bird sketches.
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I think the key is to remember that it is YOUR journal -- and not to worry about sketches that you may not think are "perfect enough" because they will still trigger memories. Besides, no-one said you can't use an eraser sometimes! I was actually really inspired by the journal of the older woman about half-way through who had a series of sketches of a hummingbird she had watched -- she clearly had several sketches that she admitted she was not that happy with, but each was a progression to the next and they improved upon each other as she went along and she saw what needed correction. She pointed out things in some of the sketches that she had been "trying" to capture but didn't quite get right but they all formed a memory for her and were part of her progress to a better artist in the end.
Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)