Birding With Pencils

Day 216: For the moment at least, I am attempting to make one bird sketch each day. I find that it takes at least an hour and a half (sometimes substantially more), and during the endeavour, I tend to lose track of the passage of time. When I finally reach the "Okay, that does it" stage, the morning has all but disappeared. I am also trying to improve my technique by watching YouTube videos on shading, blending, layering and so on, and it is obvious to me that I still have a lot to learn. Still, for someone who has had absolutely no training in art, I am happy with most of the portraits: 18 to date, one of which I will not make public because I could not capture the colour accurately. Top to bottom, left to right, here you see a female Black-Headed Grosbeak, a Piping Plover chick, Northern Cardinal, male Black-Headed Grosbeak, and a head study showing the differences in the field markings between Golden-Crowned and White-Throated Sparrows, often confused by novice birders who only catch a glint of golden yellow on the forward portion of the head. Each drawing was made from photos I have taken of the "locals" with the exceptions of the Plover chick (reference image from a friend) and the Northern Cardinal (a species we do not have in western Washington).

This Is Nuts!

Day 100: I've done over two dozen pages in the "Enchanted Forest" colouring book I was given by a friend, and when I came to this particular page, I expected it to be rather boring when compared to trees and flowers and hidden critters. I was in for a pleasant surprise. As I began the first acorn, I realized that simply filling in the spaces with colour was uninspired, so I decided to try shading. My first attempt was less than stellar, but with each subsequent nut, I felt I was improving. I completed each one individually to avoid repetition. Now I'd have to say that this has been one of my favourite pages, and I still have the leaves to finish!

Botanical Art

Day 97: My talent for art is feeble at best, although I'm learning how to handle coloured pencils thanks to a Christmas gift of Johanna Basford's "Enchanted Forest" colouring book. As I've experimented with shading and blending, it has occurred to me that any naturalist worth the name should at least dabble at illustrating. Here you see my first effort, catkins plucked from Harry Lauder, the contorted filbert in my yard. I made a faint outline of my subject with a standard lead pencil and then began applying colour. Unfortunately, I failed to center the drawing on the page (laziness on my part...I should have erased it and started over), and I find the colour saturation to be lacking (best I could manage with these pencils), but as a first attempt, I'm not too disappointed.

More Christmas Fun

Day 75: Warning! There are people out there who want you to Grow Up. You know who I mean. Maybe you work with them. Maybe they live next door. Maybe they're even some of your closest friends. Somewhere along the line they did, and now they want you to join them in their misery. If you've managed to get this far with some residual child in your soul, resist!

I think I was about ten when I first realized that something important to survival was fading from my life. Scientist that I was even then, I determined to isolate its essence in the hopes that I could tuck away a tiny bit of the distilled product in a safe location in my mind. For most purposes, I appear today to my colleagues and acquaintances to be a fully functioning adult, but there are a few close friends who know the Other Me, the child who enjoys silly songs, games and colouring books. I look forward to opening their gifts at any season, but especially at Christmas. Like any kid, I love Christmas morning.

So here's a bit of philosophy from a little old lady who never grew up: go be a kid for a while. And if you colour outside the lines...well, that's okay too.