Kathy

Activity 3: Watched a common tern dive from the air for food in the harbor at my local park , while a cormorant, was on top of the water and would dive down be gone for a minute and seem to come up each time with a meal. The gull that followed the Tern, chased it until the Tern dropped it in the water...the gull gave up quick trying to find it on the waters' surface, but the Tern circled back when the gull (there were two at this point) left and picked it back up in exactly the same spot it dropped it...Terns are smart! Different fishing techniques, but the cormorant seemed to be most successful.

I really came to appreciate the motto "keep common birds, common" , especially while under house quarantine. I fell in love with a pair of mourning doves that called our pine tree home... each morning the first thing that came to mind was not coffee, but how are the birds, what are they doing, did the one egg hatch...I really got to appreciate the ordinary birds in my yard/neighborhood, something I definitely took for granted. Though not a colorful bird, grayish/brown- it has a distinct long tail and a call that I found soothing. Parents shared nesting / feeding duties- I was really surprised that during high winds the flimsy nest withstood the stress... I can't thank you all enough, for all these inexpensive courses and sharing your expertise (I attended a fabulous lecture at the lab on crows by Kevin...).  I wrote poems about the birds I saw while home during those 4 months...and I never wrote poetry before...I have been drawing them also. I am now a more relaxed version, of me....Thank you!!

@Patricia I agree- painting has really helped me too!  I am downstate in Staten Island- fortunately we are known as the borough of parks-  love the drawings- landscape painting is difficult - this is my first attempt with watercolor, and I am glad I tried this medium.

At first it was difficult, but very enjoyable. I saw all kinds of shapes and it really forced me to slow down and concentrate in order to be able to connect the various lines- I was afraid that proportion would be bad, but was surprised to find the opposite! Thanks Liz, this was a great exercise and I loved your upside down drawing!

Gesture drawings are helping me observe with purpose and I am seeing geometric shapes in all my subjects, because it allows me to focus on my sketch thinking about proportion to the whole. By reducing the whole to parts and doing a quick outline I can capture movement and detail in a shorter amount of time.

Great exercise, I seemed to consistently have a problem connecting the top form of the subject with the last part of my drawing. I start big and end with a smaller drawing - my brain can't seem to conceptualize and make the connection of 'how big' is my actual drawing. Very challenging!