We have a family of crows that visit our backyard feeder and the interaction between them is so interesting. There are three young (I assume siblings) and they seem like they're goofing off, poking each other, playing with each other. Then the adult shows up, caws at them, and they follow the adult away.
I was surprised that the baby crows were be handled at such a young age. I guess it makes sense to identify them while they are still in the nest if they are going to be followed for their lifespan.
It is early days yet, but I have noticed increased bee activity. We added a bee hotel along with our new garden plantings and I have definitely noticed a lot more bees around!
Our yard has a fairly good assortment of trees, shrubs and some newly planted native perrenials. I had never really thought about yard waste and brush piles though. I am thinking of creating corners of brush piles where it can be tucked away but still provide resources (we live in an area of "perfect lawns"). I have been slowly getting rid of our front lawn, initially with some raised bed planters, and now am working on a perrenial garden so I will definitely try to incorporate more tall grasses, shrubs, ground cover, etc.
I have a raised bed garden that is a mix of vegetables and flowers and a greenhouse. We have a lot of bird activity at our backyard feeders and have had success with our solitary bee hotel. I want to replace our grass front yard with a perrenial garden of native plants to attract more birds and butterflies.
I think I made a lot of use of proportion and negative space in the second drawing. I would never have attempted watercolour before doing this course. I would like to work on capturing the little details with watercolour.
1. I am not managing my materials well in the field, I am pretty much a kit explosion. My watercolours come in tubes so that doesn't help. Having said that, I am enjoying the process.
This is my first experience with watercolours. It's not as difficult as I thought but I find that my colours are fading a bit after they dry. I am using my children's dollar store watercolours so perhaps I need to upgrade.
I think looking at the negative space has been the most helpful. It's something I didn't think about before but it has really helped me get my proportions more accurate.
This was much easier than I thought it would be initially. The picture looked complicated at first but when I just concentrated on the shapes and their relation to each other, it was really manageable. I think this turned out a lot better than if I had just tried to draw the bird.
I think I am noticing more of the mannerisms and interaction with gesture drawing. I used to always draw from photographs, I would never have tried to draw something moving. I like having the ability to draw something on the spot, even if the drawings aren't perfect.
I found this kind of like playing the piano, knowing where your hands are on the keys without looking, is like knowing where your pencil is with respect to everything you've already drawn.
There is not much growing here yet, still snow on the ground, so I used a couple of wildflower pictures my husband emailed me. I found that comparison drawing really made you look at things at a deeper level than just drawing a single thing would; kind of puts you in the mindset of looking for differences and similarities.
1. I found this challenging. I usually like to take pictures and them draw from them so I can get all the details more acurately on the page. I tried to quickly sketch the overall scene without going into too much detail.
I am definitely more comfortable using these techniques with simply shaped fruit rather than more complicated shapes. I think I need to work on using the different techniques together.
1. I prefer drawing from photos over real life events. It gives me the opportunity to notice so many little details I would have overlooked.
2. There are so many things I would not have noticed if I wasn't drawing it; the different types of moss/lichen on the branch, the reddish/brown feathers underneath, the perfectly circular eye, the chewed on leaf... I think nature journaling forces you to slow and pay attention to the little things.
1. I started nature journaling with my children to hopefully make them more aware and appreciative of the nature all around them.
2. I love the look of the watercolour, monthly summary pages but I think I am too regimented and probably tend more toward the daily summary, everything-in-boxes style.