Several summers ago a family of beavers moved onto our north western PA property and built a pond and home. I spent hours watching them and photographing them, as well as reading and researching about them. I would take them sweet potatoes, apples, carrots and their favorite, aspen branches and they got quite comfortable around me. Two of my favorite books I read were Lilly Pond, Four Years With A Family of Beavers by Hope Ryden and Beaversprite by Dorothy Richards. Dorthy Richards gave her life to conservation and saving beavers from merciless killing. She gave many talks expressing how beneficial they are for our planet and the environment. There are many photos of Dorothy with her beavers, some inside her home eating their favorite snacks. Grey Owl's writings were also fascinating to me. He originally was a trapper, but became aware of the devastation it was causing and devoted his life to conservation and protecting the beaver. A few of the other books I learned so much from were My Beaver Colony by Lars Wilson and In Beaver World by Enos Abijah Mills. The beavers we had here have moved on this summer. It got very dry and their pond became too low for them to stay. I will always remember the special two summers they spent here and how much they taught me. The sketches I included for this project were from my cell phone and trail cams I set up at the pond.
I used mostly dry brush on the second yellow warbler. I was happy with the drawing and just used watercolor on the warbler and pencil for the rest of the drawing. I felt I handled the watercolor a little better, because I did not try to overwork and get it sloppy looking. I need a lot more practice before I really feel comfortable with this medium.
I can't say I will ever feel comfortable with watercolor. I either get too much water or not enough and it is difficult for me to control, I always feel it is sloppy. The painting I did outside is way darker than the scene I was painting, I included a shot of the area I was painting. I used mostly washes. The cedarwaxwing I was happy with. Got to do a lot more practicing.
This was the first time I worked with watercolor and it was very frustrating to try to get the effects I wanted. I tried using all three techniques in the picture of my cat but wasn't happy with the results. It definitely is going to take a lot of practice. I would use this medium in the field, but probably not on a finished painting .
This was the first experience I have had with watercolors. It was a little difficult creating the color I was going for, some I was happy with, some I was not. Watercolor will be a challenge for me, but I am looking forward to continue to learn about the medium. I have used acrylics and colored pencil alot, but not watercolor.
This was fun to work on. I went back to the lesson on gesture drawing and did a lot more gesture drawings and picked out a couple I wanted to work on. Can't say I was real happy with the upper drawing , I was however quite satisfied with the bottom one. I used all the drawing skills we have worked on so far and can't say one was more helpful than the other, they all work together. Fun course!!
I enjoyed this and learned a lot. I found I used all the "tools" I have learned so far and incorporated it into the drawing. Parts of it were a little frustrating, such as getting the shapes in on the bird's breast, but it was fun and I was happy with the results.