Clark's Nutcracker Drawing

"Drawing is a frame of mind, a loving embrace if you will." 
                                                                      - Susan Avishai

I haven't posted many drawings lately. Too busy painting! But I do love to sketch and draw. One day in September, a very accommodating Clark's nutcracker posed for me and I took a series of reference photos which I then sketched and drew from. (It was too high up in the tree to be able to draw from life. Plus it moved around too fast.) 

 

Clark's nutcracker working the camera. Yeah Baby!

 

Nutcrackers are in the jay family and have the personality to match. They love to feast on pine cone seeds and are primarily found in pine forests and high elevations in and around western North America.

Tulips and Creativity

"There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted."

 - Henri Matisse         

My models

I've been having fun finding quotes for my posts since I started adding them a while back. This particular one really spoke to me. I find that once I've completed a painting or drawing I end up thinking what's so special about that? There's nothing unique about it. I haven't created anything new. It looks like hundreds of other paintings or drawings of that subject. There are people that would argue it is unique because each person is different therefore each drawing must reflect that difference. I can see that to a point, but my yearning is to create something that isn't subtle in its uniqueness. It'd be nice to create things that make people stop for a minute and really look at the piece instead of just thinking, "Oh another ________."

Mood lighting for my models. I like the effect.

I bought this bunch of tulips simply to bring a little cheer into our house. I put them in a vase and placed them on a table where their color compliments our living room decor and I can easily see them. The more I looked at them and admired them the more I wanted to draw them.

Tulip sketch

And so I settle down to draw tulips and this is all I come up with. Special? No. Unique? I think not. It's just a random sketch of a tulip. It is not particularly insightful or creative. It makes me restless and frustrated just looking at it. Why is it so hard for me to think outside the box as it were? These tulips are beautiful and I love their shape and velvety petals. I've been feasting my eyes on them ever since I bought them. So why doesn't my experience with the tulips, my feelings about the tulips come across in the drawing? Probably because, as Mr. Matisse would say, I first have to forget every other tulip that was ever painted.

Back on My Feet

Ugh, I came down with my first cold in a year and a half and it was not fun. Doing any art during this time was out of the question as it was dangerous to tilt my head at even the slightest descending angle. I kept the tissue people in business, let me tell you. My week was spent just getting through the essentials and resting in between. I'm not 100% yet, but I feel 100 times better. Being able to breathe is a wonderful thing.


As is usually the case when I can't do art for a while, when I can get back to it I want to dive right in. I haven't been doing much drawing lately and I miss it. I know a lot of artists hate drawing. I know a lot of artists look on drawing as a necessary evil that you have to do to get to the good stuff, like painting. Crazy person that I am, I actually love to draw. I find it so soothing, and the feel of graphite on good smooth paper is truly a pleasure. On the first day that I was breathing (mostly) normally and had decent energy, I went right for the pencils.

The result was this drawing of a short-eared owl my husband and I saw one morning outside of First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park, near Great Falls, Montana a few years ago. It was sunning itself on a fence post and allowed us to watch it for quite a while. Being the high plains, it was a windy day and I tried to stay true to the wind blowing the owl's feathers and tufts around a bit. Also notice that the owl's one pupil is much smaller than the other one because of the strong morning sun.


I may turn this drawing into a full-blown painting. I am tempted to just add some light watercolor washes to it and keep it as more of a sketch. We'll see. I still have more work to do on the spoonbill and oystercatcher paintings as well, but I'm saving that for another post.

Spring Flowers in Autumn

Nearly all the leaves are off the trees now, and I have to scrape the frost off the car windshield every morning. Fall is well on its way to winter. I have summer stored in my computer though, in all the photos I am still slowly processing from our trip. The sunshine, warmth, and potential subject matter will sustain me through the long winter.

Pencil sketch of trillium

I believe this is Pacific trillium, Trillium ovatum. It was blooming in profusion at the DeVoto Cedar Grove along the Lochsa river in Idaho. Such a peaceful place. The only sound was the river, extra high this year because of all the snow in the Rockies. The smell was of rich, damp earth. And the ground under the silent, towering cedars was strewn with trillium.

The DeVoto Cedar Grove always makes me think of my father. He grew up in Idaho and loved the Lochsa river. He fished, hunted and camped along the river as a young man and then as a father he brought our family here on vacations. In many ways he was not well-suited to be a parent, but he did pass on to me a love of nature and art and I will always be grateful for that.

Pittsburgh Aviary

On our road trip this summer we made a special trip to the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This has been a favorite place of ours for many years and I was happy to visit again. It is essentially a birds-only zoo, so I was like a kid in a candy store. We'd had a long drive from Kentucky that day, so we only had a few hours at the Aviary before it closed but I took full advantage, snapping reference photos and sketching when I could.

African or Jackass Penguins; so called because they are said to make a donkey-like sound.
They were being cute but quiet when we visited.

An Inca Tern sporting its chic white mustache.

Victoria Crowned Pigeon from the rainforests of New Guinea.
Imagine this as your typical city pigeon!

Rhinoceros Hornbill. How cool is that?
I am in love with these guys. Plus they sit fairly still for sketching.
The Aviary says they are from the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java and Borneo
so I will probably never get an opportunity to see them in the wild.

The Visitor

Pencil sketch of the mystery moth.

I went hiking with a good friend on Saturday evening. The last time we went for a hike together we had to walk back in the dark, so this time we brought flashlights to avoid potential twisted ankles or surprise attacks by bears. When we arrived back at her house, this lovely moth was waiting for us near the porch light. Except for the delicate black marking on its wings and fuzzy body, it would have blended in perfectly with the wall. Notice the lack of antennae - just two stubs; I thought that was interesting. I have been trying to identify the moth, but I haven't found this specific type yet. I suspect it is in the subfamily Acronictinae, but I'm no expert. Has anyone seen one like it before?

Sketching Magpies

Magpies have had no trouble adapting to life around humans. This magpie spent quite a lot of time checking out the bed of this truck and eventually I saw it jump in and fly off with what looked like a small piece of brick.

There are lots of magpies on campus. Many people are annoyed by their loud calls and opportunistic habits, but I find them highly entertaining. And how can you not admire the iridescent feathers and that gorgeous long tail?

A family of them live around our apartment building and I've been enjoying observing them. When we were moving our furniture into our new home, we had our front door propped open and at one point we watched as a very bold magpie stood in the doorway peering into our place, deciding whether to explore further. Luckily it didn't - I'd hate to think of the carpet cleaning bill.

It's been a bit showery lately, with the usual post-rain worms scattered about the ground and sidewalks. Today I watched as our group of magpies went worm-hunting. There was a lot of picking them up and then dropping them again, so I was never quite sure if they actually wanted to eat them or were just having fun playing with their food.

Pencil sketches of some of the magpies on campus. Sketching them is a little challenging as they never stay still for more than a few seconds. I had to use photos to supplement my live sketching.

Daily Sketch - False Lily of the Valley

Maianthemum species - false lily of the valley

I don't often get to enjoy the luxury of having time to sit and sketch a plant in depth. Even on our vacation to Oregon in July, there was so much to see and do that we were always on the go. One afternoon, however, I did have some free time and so I wandered around outside the house we were sharing on the coast with Denise and Jim. I found all sorts of wonderful plants growing right around the house, including this one. It is a native, but was being used in the landscaping - a smart choice for low maintenance gardening. Why fight the climate you are in, after all. Grow a plant that's genetically adapted to the area! This one made a lovely shade groundcover. The leaves are thick and deep green, it has delicate white flowers in spring and then these mottled berries in summer. What's not to like?