Forum Role: Participant
Active Since: October 8, 2019
Topics Started: 0
Replies Created: 5

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Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Myriam
    Participant
    Beautiful rendered bean pods. I've been seeing a lot of pods on the ground lately from trees which I think are Honey Locust. Since seeing your drawing, I've been thinking about what they look like inside (which I finally found out yesterday) and of maybe drawing one using your drawing as a reference for how to set up the pod and for the shading. I like the way you captured concave and convex shapes.
  • Myriam
    Participant
    I started this part of the course in early December and the most remarkable thing I had noticed recently in nature near me was the large number of Long-Tailed Ducks that had arrived on Lake Ontario in mid-November. When I noticed this, I also noted that the many, many Double-crested Cormorants that nest and fish on the lake near Burlington were mostly all gone. Why? If Long-Tailed Ducks and other fishing ducks can fish in the winter, why can't cormorants? The first image that popped into my mind was of a cormorant on a rock or tree stump near water with wings outstretched. So my first possible explanation is that cormorants cannot survive when air temperature is below freezing, even though there is open water for fishing, because they don't fully waterproof their wings with preening oil like ducks do. When they stretch out their wings, they are drying them. Then I wondered how the cormorants that lived in Vancouver, British Columbia dried their wings when it rained for 3 or more days in a row in the winter. I suppose wet wings aren't a problem if the birds don't need to fly and as long as the temperature is above freezing. I also thought about what Double-crested Cormorants and Long-Tailed Ducks do when they are not fishing. Long-Tailed Ducks spend all their time on water, even when sleeping, whereas cormorants stand or sit on shores or perch in trees. This might affect the two species wintering location choices. While doing a bit of research on cormorants, I learned that they are not considered waterfowl. Waterfowl, like ducks and geese, are in the Galloanseres clade but cormorants are in a sub-clade of Neoaves called Aequonirthes, or "core waterbirds", along with Penguins, Tubenoses, Pelicans, Storks and Loons. Furthermore, recent phylogenetic research suggests that cormorants belong in a family called Suliformes rather that in Pelecaniformes. IMG_E2372
  • Myriam
    Participant
    I like the way you captured the sounds, sights and feel of the place in your journal page. It recreated little bits of the place for me. I like that you wrote down some of the colours you saw.
  • Myriam
    Participant
    I chose my dining room as my sit spot. It was interesting to observe familiar objects more closely. Drawing the reflections in my salt grinder was a new experience and so was drawing a leafy plant. I thought I might get bored but the time flew by. Both the drawing challenges and the discovery of new shapes were quite captivating. image10
  • Myriam
    Participant
    1. Drawing from the photo with pencil, then over that with ink felt comfortable, since I do that often. The painting part was hard. I find paint intimidating so instead of jumping right in, I got familiar with the Koi sketch box colours by painting and labeling them. It was my first time using a water brush and I found it difficult to control how much water was in the brush. 2. I like taking photos of nature because it is a very fast way to capture a moment and my camera easily reproduces colours. Drawing from a photo allows me to spend more time with the subjects, observing and reproducing. Drawing the yellow warbler helped me notice the colours of the different feather groups, the shape of the bird's beak, and how the bird positions his feet on his perch. I also payed closer attention to the brown of the branch, its texture and how the shadows fell on it. I noticed the shape, colour and vein pattern of the leaves. The time to observe and reproduce when drawing makes me notice more details in nature which make my nature journaling experience richer. image0
    in reply to: Jump Right in! #649785
Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)