Matt
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Viewing 16 posts - 1 through 16 (of 16 total)
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This is the most recent entry from my journal. I have watched this Japanese maple for years, sometimes from the chairs I tried to include in my watercolor, sometimes looking up through the leaves while lying in a hammock. I have used its branches to teach my students about stream order in watersheds. There is a remarkable resemblance in the branching of trees and the branching in rivers. A colleague of mine dubbed it "a lightshed."
There are two poems that have stuck with me over the years. Mary Oliver's The Summer Day and Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay. I've also enjoyed reading Wendell Berry. From the Long Legged House:
"We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world... We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that i it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it... For I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it." -
I think I did a better job at capturing proportions in my first attempt, but my last attempt I was able to capture more detail accurately. I was able to use glazing to mute some of the dark colors. With a bit more patience, I was able to layer colors to be able to capture those details.
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Today I didn't have the time to go to some of my favorite observation/journaling spots. This is a Japanese maple in my back yard, and a place I love to sit. This particular tree has led me to many questions about tree structure, functions, patterns, etc.
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I typically use the wet on dry technique, and sometimes wet on wet (usually accidentally after having gotten the paper too wet and adding additional colors). I find the dry brush difficult to control.
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I've learned that by focusing more on negative space and the relationship between the parts makes my drawings more realistic.
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This drawing is of a pool in a stream, and there was a log laying in the stream close the near side. I was tempted to draw the log very close, with about a third of the visible river between me and the log. However using the proportion techniques, it was clear that in my frame, only about of a third of what I could see of the stream lay beyond the log, and two thirds on my side of the log. I think this observation helped me to capture the depth of the landscape a little more accurately.
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This is a technique that will take a lot of practice. It did help me to capture a bit about behavior and variation in body positioning. But there was so much movement, I found myself abandoning sketches before it began to look like anything that made sense.
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I agree.... I don't like bailing on a drawing either. I found myself starting lots of little sketches and having to move on before it made any sense.
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I compared andromeda and leucothoe, both planted in my yard. I chose these because of some superficial similarities: general leaf shape, presence of dried flowers from last season, new spring flowers forming, overall shape and size of the shrub. By looking more closely, I could see that the form and branching was quite different. The arrangement of leaves (alternate on both) showed some observable differences, too. The andromeda appears from a distance has a rosette of leaves at the end of each branch. The leucothoe has alternating leaves at each node, and the stem itself zig-zags at each node, whereas the andromeda's stem remains straight at the nodes.
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Oops... I mislabeled my specimen... I got the bushes in my yard confused. This isn't Mountain Laurel, it is Andromeda. The variety is Pieris Mountain Fire.
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As a biology teacher, I have for years emphasized the relationship between form and function. We start with simple examples, like the human hand. Then we revisit it throughout the year, whether we are studying the fit of a species in its environment, the structure of the digestive system, or the shape of an individual protein, like ATP synthase in our mitochondria. I love the idea of revisiting the same sit spot regularly over the course of a year to watch for change over time.
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It has been a long time since I've done much sketching. It is coming back to me though.
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1. Working with watercolor is hard for me. I always end up using too much water and my colors all bleed together.
2. Because I was trying to draw it, I counted the number of black and yellow stripes in the wing, the softness of the feathers around the shoulder, and the curve of the fingers around the claw. I didn't capture all of those details accurately, but I looked at it much more closely than I would have otherwise.
This is the most recent entry from my journal. I have watched this Japanese maple for years, sometimes from the chairs I tried to include in my watercolor, sometimes looking up through the leaves while lying in a hammock. I have used its branches to teach my students about stream order in watersheds. There is a remarkable resemblance in the branching of trees and the branching in rivers. A colleague of mine dubbed it "a lightshed."
There are two poems that have stuck with me over the years. Mary Oliver's The Summer Day and Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay. I've also enjoyed reading Wendell Berry. From the Long Legged House:
"We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world... We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that i it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it... For I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it." 
I think I did a better job at capturing proportions in my first attempt, but my last attempt I was able to capture more detail accurately. I was able to use glazing to mute some of the dark colors. With a bit more patience, I was able to layer colors to be able to capture those details. 
Today I didn't have the time to go to some of my favorite observation/journaling spots. This is a Japanese maple in my back yard, and a place I love to sit. This particular tree has led me to many questions about tree structure, functions, patterns, etc. 
I typically use the wet on dry technique, and sometimes wet on wet (usually accidentally after having gotten the paper too wet and adding additional colors). I find the dry brush difficult to control. 
This drawing is of a pool in a stream, and there was a log laying in the stream close the near side. I was tempted to draw the log very close, with about a third of the visible river between me and the log. However using the proportion techniques, it was clear that in my frame, only about of a third of what I could see of the stream lay beyond the log, and two thirds on my side of the log. I think this observation helped me to capture the depth of the landscape a little more accurately. 
It has been a long time since I've done much sketching. It is coming back to me though. 
1. Working with watercolor is hard for me. I always end up using too much water and my colors all bleed together.
2. Because I was trying to draw it, I counted the number of black and yellow stripes in the wing, the softness of the feathers around the shoulder, and the curve of the fingers around the claw. I didn't capture all of those details accurately, but I looked at it much more closely than I would have otherwise. Viewing 16 posts - 1 through 16 (of 16 total)