اليازية

A crab-plover in the same area just before the sunset.. tried to play with the depth of field and kept the bird in a  silhouette  because I felt the golden light reflected around it will emphasis the importance of the bird..

1) The wow moment I felt was during the “Capturing Behaviour” session. When we were asked to sketch as much as we can from the behaviours of birds/animals while watching them for two minutes. Then, drawing a quick sketch within one minute. After that, an extreme sketch of photos within 30 seconds. It was striking to see my 30 seconds then pick one of them to sketch a piece for “Giving Your Drawings Depth” assignment. I was amazed to see the differences between the quick 30 seconds sketch and the proper drawing of more than two hours work. 2) Yes, I have tried two things: A. Imagine your natural subject could talk to you. What would it say? A Conversation between two Sand Bubbler Crabs. Arguing who should leave the hole first.. and one doesn’t want to step out cause he was afraid of the reflection of the sunlight on my iPhone; I placed it there to video the moment it comes - happened for less than 2 seconds only. B. Collect natural items, draw them, and write why you chose each object and where you found them. Collected several types of leaves from the planted trees surrounded us. Printed them on cards to keep a record of what is there by the house. Also, I collected several fallen nests to see what they were built of - guess wha I found! Humans’ hairs, tissue papers, some thin coloured plastics, plant’s roots, feathers, dried leaves, dried grass and extremely thin branches ^_^; ______ Enjoy every moment of while observing the nature , there is always something new to learn ;D

It took me ages to answer this question. The reason is that I discovered that we don’t have well-known Arabic author specialising in nature writings. There are some pieces here and there but none could be categorised as nature writer. There was a book on nature I read before - yes the book subject is relative, yet the author is not. The Arabic title is: غريزة أم تقدير إلهي I read it twice.. the rest of the books I have are translated.  This made me wonder if it is me who’ve never thought of the subject or is it the publishing industry that doesn’t pay much attention to the topic? Anyways, the book I’m enjoying at the moment is Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees. I can say it is the sociology of trees’ book!

While Painting

• The first thing I noticed when comparing my “outdoor sketch” with the photograph is that the horizon line was not right.  I corrected my sketch and planned my painting layers ahead before mixing the colours.

• My goal was not the sketch nor the scientific knowledge built from the observation, instead, I was focussing on experimenting with the watercolours and the brushes. I planned four layers: -1- the background; wash the sheet with the required colours and waited till it dried. -2- used dry brush for some parts and add some bright colours for the details. (Then I stopped! I just stopped and I don’t really know why!) Here were the incomplete sketch waited for me:

• The following was the “planned layers” -3- apply the glazing technique for the background and a hint of glazing for the foreground. -4- finally add the details lining and texture.
• HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT TIP FROM THIS EXPERIENCE   Never move your sketchbook/sheet colours and change your location WHILE painting — a simple thing might happen:

 

• I full cup of water poured over the painting — I didn’t noticed that until I went back to continue the work. P.S. the water was from the brushes container not a regular cup , I totally forgot to empty it >.<
• now I don’t feel like finishing it — I’ll have to have a better mood or maybe I’ll go back to sketching then I’ll get back to the watercolours (I really really really wanted to finish this piece - it was going to be my first completed watercolour piece)

By the way, I have to say that I couldn’t use my notebook for the watercolours .. the water ruined its pages, thats why I used single watercolours sheets. (another tip!)

While working on this entry, I was convinced with one thing: watercolour needs patience. To tame my urgency within myself, I have decided to sketch three sketches at the same time and paint them using watercolours only. By doing so, I was able to create layers for each sketch. After finishing a layer, I moved to the other sketch and do the same. This give me enough time to let the layer dry and experiment as well. This is my first sketch: 1. The pencil used for the outline sketch was a B6 pencil, I decided to erase it and use a watercolour grey pencil instead. The reason to do so was to avoid erasing any pencil marks after colouring the piece. I was afraid that the eraser would ruin the colours and the sheet. 2. I sticked with the main colours: red, yellow, & blue as well as the white and black. For the base, I mixed the colours on the palette. used a dry on wet for all the sketches. 3. As soon as I felt that the base is dry , I added a bit of lining with the tip of the brush to give an overall colour scheme for the background. 4. After that I waited until it dried fully. Then I used the dry brush to add the details to the texture. 5. I decided to use the white paste with no water at all on a semi-wet brush tip to add a depth to the texture. 6. I tried to add some shades & tones wherever needed as a final step. This is the second piece: I can’t upload the third one. I did one deadly mistake - I was lazy to mix and find the colour I want for the final detail lining - I ruin it with a blue instead of a dark/grey-purple. (I lost my patience at the last minute! >.> )

Looking through my journal, I decided to refine the 30 seconds gesture sketch of the Road Runner (June 15, 2020): I wanted to compare how I looked at & sketched an image/subject in 30 seconds then how I looked at it and sketched it with an unlimited time (took me around an hour and a half to finish it). I think when I did the quick sketch the “feeling” of its speed was visible n the sketch’s crown, however, In reality it isn’t visible as much. I’m wondering now, how much do we add from our own memory and interpretation of a behaviour while sketching? If there was no photograph would I be able to sketch at such accuracy? The most important and helpful technique was the measuring proportion and the lighting and shades. I used fine liner pens (0.05 & 0.1) for this sketch, which were 7  colours: Grey, Black, Dark Grey, Sepia, Bright Sepia, Red, Blue + a yellow coloured pencil for the eye. I tried to be aware of other techniques while sketching but I couldn’t. I was thinking of looking at the overall subject without its details, but I’m not sure if i did it consciously or i missed - cause the moment I start sketching I  went deep into and I lost track of techniques used! This is the final image:

Away from the birds, I measured the proportion of my camera and its tele-lens. I used a pencil (I prefer ink though). The technique as a technique is very useful. It is very helpful for still-life and a subject that isn't moving much - not for fast birds. With time and practice the sight is being trained to measure without this technique; I rarely use it because I'm not that patient :/ - I'm here to train myself , I'll give it a try with future drawing. -

Found it an interesting exercise. With too images I missed to connect the shapes; Bird of Paradise Flower and the Green-tailed Sunbird. While with the Newt I had a mind gap -I just wasn't sure where was I- and the sketch ended up with a bubble booming out of it! I was shocked because I completely missed with the Springbok (check #1) I thought it was easy and I doodled it with one line but it turned out to be a complete failure - couldn't accept that and so I re-sketched it with the blind contour technique and I think I did well :) I didn't know how this would help me - However, it affected my mind while working on the next exercise. Also, this morning, I noticed my sight memorising and looking at the shape of the birds instead of the details. (usually I look at the details before the overall bird. So, I guess this will help and develop my sketching skills. )

I went to observe the sand crabs - tinny creatures that will disappear with the any movement around it. So, you have to stay still for a bit more than 5 minutes for them to comeback and continue their pieces of art on the sand. They appear when the tide is low. They are at the lowest level of the ecosystems, shore birds would eat them (I  don’t know if the fishes does too  but this makes me wonder where do they go when to seawater covers this area of the beach). The create clean pretty forms in the ground with the beach sand. I was able to video several scenes while they are sucking the sand into their lower body whole then bubbling it out of their mouth creating mini-sand balls. They try to rearrange the sandballs by fixing them in lines with their back legs (Am I using the right word here?).   The upper part of the page has a wide scene of the beach; the sand balls looks amazing in reality. The lower part of the page has a close-up of one of the holes , the sand balls, the prints of the sand bubbler crab and the crab (owner of this in process piece of art). While observing, sketching and videographing,  lots of unanswered questions popped into my mind. Some of which are: 1) do they “see” with their eyes or do they sense the vibrations of any movement with their whole body?  (They are too fast) 2) why do they form such shapes? Does the bubbled sand-balls has some liquid or smell that comes out of them while bubbling it? 3) is this an indicator of the crab’s territory?  Or a mating sign? 4) what is the lifespan of the crab ? At which age(?) do they start designing these bubbled sand ? 5) when the tide is high, and when all their sand-balls are ruins where do they go ? Why do they insist on bubbling new sand-balls over and over and never give up? 6) if they can be pray of birds - doesn’t these sand-balls are clear marks of their existence ? (Bird-view wise they can be spotted easily!) Guess I have to research it to find answers :)

Since we are limited to 3 images per reply, thought it would be better to share the ones I had  issues with.

•  Sketching with a continuous one line gave me a sense of confidence. On the other hand, the sketchy lines technique hindered me; the more I sketch a new line the more I hesitant in visualising the shape I wish to sketch. I faced this problem while outlining all of the subjects: the daisy, the acorn, the gingko and the butterfly. Have you faced the same issue, anyone?

   

•  With the type of marks in sketching -- I sketched a blue sea crab; luckily, I found a dried one. I divided it into 5 parts to experiment with the marks ' types. I'm sharing the result with you. I'm not sure if I did well with the marks -- I tend to use tinny tip of the fine-liner pens; 0.05 and 0.1. Perhaps I need to try and sketch with a thicker pens/pencils to see the difference.

   

•   This is my attempt to try and look at the shades of a subject. I tried with this shell; Ancilla Glabrata. I used an artificial source of light instead of the sunlight - this shouldn't affect the result much but looking at the final result, I think if I was after the shades, then I should have tried to sketch it with one pencil colour.

I believe the most useful point on this session was the squint test. It is very practical when you don't have enough time and you needed to sketch and pin point the highlights n a subject much faster! Thanks for the tip :)