Botanical Guild Meeting
I just got back from a meeting of the So. Calif. Guild of Botanical Artists, which is held every three months in and around the southland area. What an incredibly nice (and talented) group of people! I am still evaluating whether or not I have room in my life for another membership or commitment, but if I do this would be high on my list. During this period of exploring and experimenting as I return to art after my long hiatus, I am looking at many different forms and expressions. Botanical illustration is among the most rigorous as every detail must be technically accurate as well as beautiful. Some artists draw their subjects many times, defining and refining it on tracing paper until they get the details perfect. At that point, they will transfer it to paper (watercolor paper or bristol board or another type, depending upon the medium used.) Then begins the detailed application of paint or pencil. I’m not sure that I will have the patience for that kind of exacting work, but as some of the members mentioned, some people do accurate paintings in a much looser style. On the other hand, I love flowers and gardening so much … AND … I love watercolor and other media so it makes a lot of sense that I’d be attracted to botanicals – it would unite two of my passions. So, we shall see. I don’t have any tightly rendered botanicals to share today, although I think I may try to render something small in the next few days, just to see what it “feels” like. In the meantime, here’s a field study of some tree roots, painted last year in the Angeles Forest.
Photo Friday – Pink
Click to enlarge
I don’t usually participate in Photo Friday, but this week’s theme of “pink” fit with a picture I already had on hand, taken in 2004. I can hardly wait until these lovelies bloom again this year. It is a tulip magnolia and I found this one growing at a house in Pasadena. I stood on the sidewalk and just shot like mad, hoping that the homeowner wouldn’t mind. I was intending them as reference photos to paint from, which I’m still going to do – and maybe quite soon.
Who’s Your Daddy? – Moleskine
First you saw her, earlier this week, drawn with the Derwent drawing pencils …. (scroll down)
Then you saw him, painted on watercolor paper ….
Now we’ve got them, in my Moleskine, using a more subdued palette of watercolors and a different, looser approach to the brushwork, given the slick nature of the Moleskine sketchbook paper. Are these details boring? I don’t know. I’ll mention it anyway because it’s part of what I’m discovering …
I started this sketch by squinting my eyes and looking for the darkest darks, which I indicated in the rough pencil drawing underneath. I painted the darkest areas first so that I could judge the other values accordingly. Usually I paint from light to dark, so this was a difference for me. Only after the hen and rooster were both finished did I decide about the color of the background (top) and the shadow below. I kept reminding myself to “think shapes” rather than to literally try to make it look like a shadow. I can honestly say that this is the first time that the “beading up” nature of the Moleskine paper worked to my advantage in creating that pebbly ground texture in the shade. Gotta remember that.
From this angle you can see his feathery legs, completely obscuring his feet. He’s not a Leghorn, what is he? It also occurs to me that I didn’t see anyone trying to pick up or pet the hens in the petting zoo. I’ll bet he would have pecked them if anyone had tried. The guy’s just doing his job.
The spread is 10″ x 8″ and so far I am keeping my resolution to paint every day.
Guarding His Girls
The rooster at the petting zoo was extremely protective of his two hens. He looked pretty good in his crisp white suit. And he knew it.
Art Thought of the Day from Patricia Harrington, in the October 2004 issue of Artist’s Sketchbook:
“A beginning painter can learn about tools and techniques from books and workshops, but if she would just start painting she’d eventually stumble over, back into or just learn most of what she needs to know.”
Me: I’m sure hoping that will start to stumble over what I need to know this year. I read everything I can get my hands on, but at some point you just have to sit down and give it a go. That’s my resolution for the year, so I might as well get started.
Things I’d do differently and things I learned:
More lost and found edges. He looks like a cutout
Think about creating a cast shadow to ground him
Paint on a tilted surface for better control of the wet in wet washes.
Spectacular wildlife and nature photography
Don’t pass up this fantastic online exhibition of the best nature and wildlife photography of the year.
Sponsored by the National Wildlife Magazine/National Wildlife Federation
National Wildlife Federation Photo Contest Winners
First mums
We’ll go back to drawings tomorrow. In the meantime, I am reveling in the blooming of the first of my chrysanthemums. I took these pictures yesterday after a a bit of light rain. Today, unfortunately, we had a cloudburst and most of the blooms are looking rather bedraggled. I think I have about 30 different varieties of mums this year. I haven’t counted them, but that’s a pretty good estimate. Due to my ongoing gopher problem all of these are grown in 3 to 5 gallon pots. If I didn’t do this, they would all be underground and fattening up some rodent long ago.
Click to enlarge
Prom King – Anemone style
Red Wing – is actually a spoon variety but doesn’t look like it here.
Arcadia
Illustration Friday – Roots
This is something that I had already drawn last year in the forest near our house, so I couldn’t resist using it.
It was painted in a book I made using 140 lb. watercolor paper, using Caran d’Ache neocolor II watercolor crayons and a Niji waterbrush – very portable for working while sitting on a rock by a stream! I added the text later when I scanned it.
