Catherine
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Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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Capturing gestural drawings with creatures in motion is super hard for me. Like others have mentioned, I hardly can get a wing or leg or tail sketched before the foxes or birds move. Often, because I feel so slow, I find that I keep a brief memory image and draw from that for a few seconds before trying to capture a new pose. Need lots more practice!
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I walked to a local park, where there was a section of native plant species. I was attracted to the wildly blooming flowers on two neighboring plants and used iNaturalist to try to identify them. Interestingly, iNaturalist indicated they were both in the oenothera family, even though they looked incredibly different. As I observed and sketched, I found myself looking for the similarities amidst the differences, to see how these two plants could be related, and thanks to doing direct comparisons - looking at the same features on each of the plants - I was able to see the subtle similarities. I found that comparison encouraged a balance of sketching, writing, and numerical data, simply because I was taking care to be precise. I'm not sure I used the space on the page well, and might wish to use boxes to separate the various perspectives I try in future observations.
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I am definitely feeling more comfortable putting marks on the page, and the squint test is VERY helpful. I tend to rely on hatching and scribbling, so I'd like to try expanding my experiments with cross-hatching, stippling, and blending. I have also been relying on photos rather than going out in the field, so now I want to try sketching in situ, perhaps in the early morning and evening when the light is from a striking angle to practice chiaroscuro as well.
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1. I like jumping right into drawing. At first I was just going to use pencil, but I so love the vibrant yellow and the contrasting black that I decide to break out the colored pencils. (I haven't a clue how to use watercolor yet.) The general outline of the bird came fairly easily, but the folded wing was hard, with its layered feathers. 2. I would not have noticed how the warbler's talons gripped the branch, nor how the feathers in the wing layer up sort of like a folding fan. I also would not have noticed the sparkle in the bird's eye, the brownish feathers on its belly, or the slight bluish cast to its beak. 3. Having a photo in which the bird is captured in a pose makes the whole process a lot easier. I imagine it will be incredibly difficult to capture this amount of detail in the field, where the bird would be in motion and likely would fly away.
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1. Plants and animals and natural landscapes fulfill a deep yearning for connections with what is outside my own petty concerns. I would like to see and experience natural wonders more clearly and keenly. (And hone my artistic skills in the process.) 2. I definitely will note date, time, weather, and location. I love the use of watercolor, and the mix of image and words. I like the loose use of frames, as well as both gestural/geometric and more detailed approaches. As a beginner, I am going to need to be comfortable "failing forward" a lot. I'm sure that I will do a lot of research after the fact to label and name features of my observed plants and animals. 3. As a poet, I image lines of poetry will become part of my observations. And I might also incorporate quotations by writers I admire when they occur to me as I read or as I am out in the field.
. I tend to rely on hatching and scribbling, so I'd like to try expanding my experiments with cross-hatching, stippling, and blending. I have also been relying on photos rather than going out in the field, so now I want to try sketching in situ, perhaps in the early morning and evening when the light is from a striking angle to practice chiaroscuro as well. 
Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)