Vickie's Sketchbook

Winter Delights--Yellow-rumped Warblers

2013-02-19T06:57:00.000-05:00

Winter is a special time for watching birds. For one thing, bare limbs make birds easy to see. And for the second, you often get to see birds that you don't having during the warm breeding season. In Tennessee, Yellow-rumped Warblers are one of those birds.

They breed in northern states and Canada, so we only get to see them while they're migrating or if you're lucky, when they chose your yard for their wintering grounds. I have been so lucky this year. Above you see a sketch I made of one of these warblers frequently seen hopping around under the feeders, and for the first time, I saw one sitting on my sunflower feeder picking up seeds.

More normally seen flittering around in evergreens eating insects and grubs, its always a surprise to find one sitting still enough to capture a photo. But this winter season, I've been fortunate to see them frequently and engaged in a number of foraging activities.

They are what I call "my favorite bird of the week". It is impossible to watch their busy personalities without wanting to capture that distinctive attitude in a sketch. While perched on that feeder, this warbler gave sharp warning chirps to the other birds and chased away even the tufted titmice that happened to land on the feeder.

Above, after feeding on the ground and in the flower pots for a while, this warbler seemed to respond to the warmth of the sun and began to maneuver all around the trunk and limbs of the hemlock appearing to be finding insects or grubs.

To see more images of the yellow-rumped warblers visiting this winter click here.
To see their beautiful breeding plumage visit Cornell All About Birds: Yellow-rumped warbler

And to see what's been keeping me busy and away from blogging in the past few months, visit the new expanded version of the Discovery Birds Activity Book--36 pages and 75 illustrations!

Keeping the Wild in Your Heart

2012-08-01T12:13:00.000-04:00

I have had three wonderful opportunities recently to work with other artists on projects that required more than one kind of artistic talent. The first was my Red-shouldered Hawk Territory book, a rewarding project involving a talented layout person and another artist who coordinated the printing. (visit the link for more details)

The second was our Hummingbird Festival bookmark that was part of an advertising campaign for our 2012 Hummingbird Festival organized by our bird club at Ijams Nature Center as a fund raiser. The beautiful book mark layout and printing was conceived and coordinated by another talented artist. (visit the link for more details.)

In my most recent experience I was asked to create "muddy water" that was bubbling as though a turtle was diving into it. And in a second painting, create a more detailed rendition of a Red-eared slider. Above and below you can see these two paintings before they were converted into the beautiful exhibit panel they eventually became. The muddy water was created on a 22 x 30 sheet of watercolor paper, and the turtle below it, on a half sheet, 22 x 14 inches.

Pam Petko-Seus, of Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville, is the talented artist who conceived of this exhibit panel for the Center's Red-slider turtle exhibit, and Colin Hoffman, another exceptional artist at High Resolutions, was able to take Pam's ideas and make them into an exhibit panel aimed at teaching children and adults how to take care of our wild turtles--loving and admiring them without disturbing them.

My job seemed the easiest to me!

And here are some of the important facts that people should know when tempted to take a wild animal home with them:

Capturing wild animals often threatens species survival in natural habitats and disrupts delicate ecosystems.
Wild animals spread disease.
Captive breeding does not take the wild out of wildlife.
Former pets rarely survive when returned to the wild.
Many animals are sold illegally, especially on the internet.
It is illegal in the state of Tennessee to possess native wildife without a proper permit. [This may be true in other states, as well.]

Upcoming:
One of My favorite Books: Drawing and Painting Birds
I'm Getting Ready for Alaska!

Links and Resources:
Ijams Nature Center
2012 Hummingbird Festival
Red-shouldered Hawk Territory
Red-eared Slider

Vickie Henderson's Art Featured in Nooga.com

2012-06-03T23:08:00.000-04:00

My art is featured in a lovely article written by Jenni Frankenberg Veal for the June 3rd Lifestyle section of the Chattanooga online newspaper, Nooga.com.

Jenni, whose free lance writings specialize in family outdoor activities and articles on conservation, makes regular contributions to Nooga.com, a local news website focused on the Chattanooga area in east Tennessee.

Visit Nooga.com and the June 3rd Lifestyles article entitled: East Tennessee artist Vickie Henderson reveals the art of nature. To learn more about Jenni Frankenberg Veal and her writing activities, visit her blog: Your Outdoor Family.

Red-shouldered Hawk Territory--The Treasure in the Experience

2012-04-11T06:00:00.003-04:00

Sometimes we search for the wild in nature and travel to places where we'll likely find the species we're eager to meet. Other times the wild comes to us quite unexpectedly.

This was the case with a pair of red-shouldered hawks I encountered in a suburban yard while attending a meeting in the spring of 2009. Not just one hawk, mind you, but a pair of them, moving around within close range, vocalizing loudly as I walked down the driveway to where my parked car waited on the curb. That they made themselves so visible and apparent was beyond my comprehension. And for someone like me, who loves birds, especially raptors, that accessibility equated to an invitation to learn more about their lives and their adaptation to suburban activities in their territory.

Above you see two image I took as I watched the male in the pair hunt on our third encounter. Gorgeous birds that both hunt from a perch and on the ground, flipping leaves, listening and watching for movement, and blending in with the environment. The fact that this species of hawk is very vocal, makes observations even more delightful. Though their color and patterns allow them to disappear in the wooded habitat they prefer, sooner or later a loud call will alert you to their presence. The suburban location, this chance encounter, their adaptation to human presence and activity, all came together to allow me opportunity to witness the most intimate of moments with this pair. And those moments included nesting, copulation, nuptial feedings, plucking fresh evergreen sprays for the nest, and even seeing the bare pink flesh of the female's brood patch through my camera's lens.

From a surprise introduction to completed sketches, to the beautiful printed sketchbooks that arrived this week, this was a memorable journey I will always treasure. All I could say when I held one of these books in my hand was "wow!"

I'm a person who loves books, the books with a spine and pages you can leaf through, the ones you curl up with in a comfortable chair. I think they are precious. I love reading them, writing them, and, I love sketching and creating them.

The making of a book brings other skills to bear and can make an artist dig deeper to realize this goal. This endeavor is one of determined cooperation and negotiation, as much about patience, communication, and team work, as the artistic vision that conceived the idea and moved the project forward. And now I've found the right team (see links and resources). The book is beautiful, so life-like in its replication of the sketchbook itself, that it's hard to tell the difference between the original book and it's mirror in print.

And that makes me smile. It is the greatest hurdle you go through in printing art in any form. And this book is about art and nature, about observing and capturing what you've observed in words and drawings, and about learning what your subject has to teach you, even the parts you are not allowed to know.

It's a tiny book, by book standards, replicating the size of the sketchbook, but enormous in heart and inspiration. I look back on this endeavor--the observing of hawks, most secretive and illusive of creatures--and wonder at the energy and patience that got me through this season of observation. That I could sit in the shade of a gazebo, and watch their activity as though I were a plant in the garden, astounded me from the beginning.

The observations you see in the book took dedication, the commitment to sit through non-activity hours, make regular visits a priority, the ability to remain still until my subjects appeared and to use my creative mind and curiosity to withstand lulls in activity. Waiting for the chance to see a hawk and watch its behavior, now that might be an activity some would call a waste of time. The thought crossed my mind more than once. But even the wait can be an act of labor, something that keeps you deeply rooted to the project and makes you as determined as ever to see it through.

Creating art is not an activity for the faint of heart. It challenges you inside and out, especially when that art is focused on something real, and alive and moving, and unpredictable. You, the artist, are the same, alive, moving, unpredictable. But you have trained yourself to be still, knowing what treasures are found while remaining invisible. And just when you think you might evaporate into nothingness with the waiting, a hawk appears, opens your heart and heightens all your senses. And a sketch is born, a visual story of all that you've taken in. Into your heart the hawk flies, and out through your hand and onto the paper.

This is the essence of Red-shouldered Hawk Territory, A sketchbook journey through nesting season--the story of one season's natural wonder through the heart and hand of an artist. I hope it inspires you to pick up a sketchbook and let your own story unfold.

Links and Resources:

It takes a talented team to create a book and Colin Hoffman, at High Resolutions, was tops to work with. He also lead the production of my boxed set of note cards, Autumn Birds. Visit High Resolutions to learn about the many printing services they offer.

My other partner in this endeavor was Nan Rudd of Rudd Designs, in New Glarus, WI. Nan was also the layout wizard for my joint venture with Operation Migration in the creation of the Craniac Kid's Whooping Crane Activity Book.

For more details about this sketchbook and to order visit: Red-shouldered Hawk Territory.

You will find all my posts on my experiences in Red-shouldered Hawk territory by clicking this link. The last post will appear first. Scroll to the bottom and click "older" to move backward to the first post.

For more information about the species, visit Cornell's site on Red-shouldered Hawks.

Join Me! Bird Attitudes: Inspiring Art and Conservation

2012-03-05T11:20:00.000-05:00

Join me, Wednesday, March 7th, at the Knoxville Tennesseee Ornithological Society meeting (KTOS) for an evening of photos, art and stories as I show you how birds inspire my art and my passion for conservation.

Birds are funny, fun and fascinating. From the top of their heads to the pads on their feet, a birds size, color and shape offer many clues into its life style and habits. Add to that, the personality revealed through behavior and you have the inspiration for all kinds of bird-related pursuits, including advocacy and conservation.

Join me as I share my photography, art and stories, and show you just what inspires me to pick up my brushes and paint.

KTOS Meeting information--Wednesday evening, March 7th, 6:45 pm.
Directions

America's Hooded Crane

2012-02-26T19:46:00.000-05:00

A secretive bird whose breeding territories were only first discovered in 1974, the Hooded Crane is described as one of the least understood large birds in the world. And that is primarily because it nests in the remote and inaccessible sphagnum bogs scattered through the taiga in southeastern Russia, and in China, in forested wetlands in mountain valleys.

I saw my first Hooded Crane at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, in 2005. And I saw my second at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in Tennessee in December of 2011. What was a Hooded Crane doing in the southeastern United States? No one knows for certain. But, there is every indication that this individual is wild, and possibly wandered too far west of Siberia, migrating into the United States following sandhill cranes.

Above, a group of Greater Sandhill Cranes feeding near the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in Tennessee. The Hooded Crane stands only 3.3 ft tall while the Greater Sandhill Crane may be 4-5 ft tall.

In February, 2012, this Asian crane visitor left Tennessee and was next seen staging with sandhill cranes at the Goose Pond Wildlife Management Area in Green County, Indiana. It stayed approximately four days and was last seen February 12th. Birders are watching for it in more northerly sandhill crane staging areas.

I have recently written a three-part series on the endangered Hooded Crane, threats to its native habitat, and its visit to the southeast on my companion blog, Vickie Henderson Art. The series, entitled, America's Hooded Crane, includes beautiful images taken by Chinese researcher, Dr. Guo Yumin, of the Hooded Crane on its breeding territory, along with slides explaining how to distinguish individual hooded canes.

Links and Resources:

Read more about Dr Guo Yumin's work on the Grus Monacha International Aid website.
Chinese ornithologist, Guo Yumin, win's Whitley Award for his research on the Hooded Crane.
WFN--Whitley Fund for Nature
Hooded Crane--International Crane Foundation
Sandhill Crane--International Crane Foundation

On this blog: Sandhill Cranes and Art and Whooping cranes in watercolor

Preview of My New Book! Red-shouldered Hawk Territory

2012-02-05T16:30:00.003-05:00

My Red-shouldered hawk sketchbook will soon be in print!

I've combined my entire sketchbook of watercolor and ink illustrations with additional sketches and observation notes to create a book designed to both inspire and entertain.

Below you'll find a detailed description of the book and easy pre-order instructions!

Red-shouldered Hawk Territory, A Sketchbook Journey Through Nesting Season, is the chronicle of my experiences while sketching and observing a nesting pair of suburban Red-shouldered hawks.

Encountering these hawks quite by accident and in the unlikely circumstance of a business meeting, they immediately captured my intrigue with their acceptance of humans and their accessibility. Even as I embarked on this four-month journey, I never expected to witness the intimate behaviors I encountered, nor the surprising interactions that helped me strike the important balance between observation and interference.

As much a book for the aspiring naturalist as the artist, Red-shouldered Hawk Territory will take you deep into the lives of these hawks and into the personal experiences, both delightful and frustrating, that transformed this endeavor into a journey of discovery.

I hope reading and browsing this journal will inspire your thoughts, stir questions, make you wonder what you would have done differently, and, hopefully, send you searching for your own observation opportunity with a favorite species.

Red-shouldered Hawk Territory includes my sketchbook record
of observations plus additional sketches and notes as I observed this pair of hawks throughout a nesting season. Sketches include the hawks in many circumstances, as well as, the suburban habitat in which they lived, and the many other species that inhabited Red-shouldered hawk territory.

This simple, 50-page, sketchbook-sized book is packed with full color illustrations and designed to both inspire and entertain the bird-loving artist in everyone!

"Few people have the opportunity to share their yards with Red-shouldered hawks. But, for all of us, this story is an inspiring example of peaceful co-existence and the joys and rewards of sharing our home territories with wildlife." --Vickie Henderson

Available April 1, 2012 at Vickie Henderson Art

The Yellow Glow Behind the Robin--Part II

2012-01-29T06:00:00.018-05:00

At this point in my painting, my goal is to add more color to the lower leaves and background so they appear more connected. In nature this naturally happens as light strikes the subject and surrounding colors are reflected in that light. We seldom see all the edges of a leaf at a glance, for example. We see enough to recognize the shape. Some areas will be sharp and clear, others will appear softened or fused with surrounding color and light.

I chose to place the painting on a table easel for this application of wet-in-wet paint so that water and paint will coat the paper smoothly. Setting the painting on an easel is one way to do this. I also pick up the painting and change the angle to direct the flow of paint from time to time. I use two large containers of water, allowing me to rinse the brush in one, and pick up clean water in the brush from the second. This allows the paint to remain clear and bright when it mixes with the water in the brush.

Above, I have wet the paper with my spray bottle and then applied brush strokes of New Gamboge, Quinacridone Gold and Perylene Maroon. My spray bottle is actually an old hair spray pump bottle salvaged from years past when I used hair spray. I prefer its fine mist. As the paint mixture flows down the page, I am using a paper towel to collect the paint pooled on the edge of the tape. If laid flat to dry, this excess paint and water will flow backward, leaving a washed out bloom.

I have also tucked a rolled paper towel into the tray of the easel to catch the run off that occurs before I'm ready to wipe it.

Above you see the additional color added to the lower left corner of the painting. Compare it to the pale color in the right hand corner.

Above, I have placed a stroke of New Gamboge on the paper and diluted it by spraying it. I follow this by adding more colors and allowing these to run together and blend on the paper. You can see the change that occurs in the lower right hand corner below.

Once this layer of color is dried, I can then paint the leaves and add more color to the surrounding background, a small area at a time as needed, leaving some leaf edges soft, some hard. I can also add only a little defining color to part of a leaf, letting the rest of it blend with the background, or I can add a lot of detail as in the two larger leaves in front of the robin. These variations add interest.

When you are using a bright color in the background, such as the yellow that is used here, remember that you can alter it later with a glaze of another color. As the painting progressed, I softened some of the yellow by adding a glaze of green (ultramarine mixed with arylide) to some areas, or a pale glaze of one of my reds to other areas.

If you like color, variety, glazes, a chance to use wet-in-wet and create hard and soft edges, an "anything goes" approach to watercolor, fall leaves are a great subject to play with!

Links and Resources:

Part I of the Yellow Glow Behind the Robin
Interesting and helpful description of "washes and glazes" on Wiki
Wet-in-wet described on Wiki
On this blog: wet-in-wet demonstration
My Autumn Bird paintings beginning with Autumn Robin
Autumn Birds Note Cards

The Yellow Glow Behind the Robin

2012-01-25T06:00:00.006-05:00

Sometimes we take the birds we commonly see for granted, simply because we see them everyday. If you've never stopped to notice an American Robin, you should take some time to do that soon. Beautiful in coloration, timid at times, boisterous at others, it is a delight to watch their behavior.

The painting above is one included in my Autumn Birds Note Cards. The inspiration for this painting came from a whole flock of robins that descended on my dogwood trees a couple of fall seasons ago. The trees were full of ripe red berries and the robins were making such a commotion with their chirping and fluttering as they plucked the berries, that I spent more than an hour watching and photographing them. Below, you see the initial sketch I made as a result of that experience. I was taken with the colors, as well as, the birds, with how the purples and maroons looked so beautiful with the robin's plumage.

Creating a sketch deepens a memory with all of its sensory detail and adds to the enjoyment of the experience. The robins were so intent on feeding that they ignored my presence. This made for some wonderful and close observations. As I was considering birds to paint in my note card collection, the memory of this sketch came right to mind and became the inspiration and reference for this painting.

In the painting I wanted to give more emphasis to the yellow glow behind the leaves in the background than I had in the sketch, so I began by laying down a variegated wash of yellows--WN Quinacridone gold, DVP Arylide yellow and WN New Gamboge. I used four additional pigments in the painting: WN French Ultramarine, WN Alizarin Crimson, WN Perylene Maroon, and WN Burnt Sienna.

Above you see a sketchbook page of the colors I was using (with the exception of the square of Perylene Violet which I decided to not use). French Ultramarine is a versatile blue shade. Mixed with burnt sienna it makes wonderful neutrals. Mixed with yellows, it becomes luscious greens. Add a bit of it to red and you get rich purples. Ultramarine is one of my favorite colors because of that versatility. The mixed hues that result help to unify the colors in the painting. I often create a page like the one you see above with the primary pigments in the palette, along with the mixes I will use. It gives me a fresh look at the pigments and a chance to consider how they will work with the subject at hand.

My initial washes were painted on wet paper and allowed to dry before continuing. In some areas, these washes turned out lighter than I intended. As I added the bold colors to the leaves, and painted the robin, I began to see too many hard edges and the pale yellow washes seemed more and more disconnected from the leaves and robin. I realized that if I continued painting in this fashion, the leaves and robin would look like "cut-outs", disconnected entirely from the environment around them.

My solution for this is to get out the spray bottle, add more color and mix things up a bit! This is when playing really begins!

Next: Bringing the leaves and background together with more color.

Links and Resources:

Autumn Bird Note Cards

Autumn Bird paintings beginning with Autumn Cardinal

More about the American Robin at Vickie Henderson Art

Gourd Art--Pyroengraving or Wood-burning an Art Design

2012-01-21T19:37:00.015-05:00

The last three months of 2011 were busy months during which I painted four original watercolor images for my Autumn Bird Collection and supervised the production of note cards featuring these images; created and edited the Discover Birds Activity Book, a joint project with the TN Ornithological Society, now available to help children get excited about birds; and created a new gourd art basket decorated with bird images at the special request of a friend.

Many hours go into the creation of a gourd art basket and while I was creating this piece, I took the time to photograph the process with the idea of creating a tutorial for those who wish to create gourd art, as well as, for those who wonder what goes into the process of creating one of my gourd art baskets.

I am devoting this post to a "how-to" tutorial that shows just one phase of the art-making process, the pyroengraving of an original design onto the gourd surface.

Only one bird art image is shown in the tutorial below, but this gourd art basket includes four bird images of different species placed around the gourd, as well as, the decorative design on the bottom (shown above) and near the rim, a trademark of all my gourd art baskets. At the end of the post, you will find a link to my gourd art gallery showing all four art images decorating this gourd art basket.

TUTORIAL: Pyrography--Burning Art onto a Hard-shell Gourd

Supplies you will need:

A cut, cleaned and dried hard shell gourd
Wood burning system, preferably one with a temperature control; I use the Detail Master III
Flame resistant paper, also know as, pyro paper
A sketch, print or photo of the image you would like to transfer to the gourd surface
Pencil and soft art eraser
Scotch brand, "magic matte tape"

(Links to supply sources are found at the end of the tutorial)

Pyrography is the art of burning pictorial images onto a surface, such as, wood, leather or gourds, the most commonly know of which is burning on wood or wood-burning. The words "pyrography" and "wood-burning" are terms that are interchangeable in common usage, and both are frequently used to refer to pyrography on any surface. Hard shell gourds make a wonderful surface for applying pyroengraved images because the gourd's surface is both hard and porous. For this reason, it is also important to have a burning system that allows the temperature of the burning tip to be adjusted.

The hardness of the surface of gourds varies considerably according to the variety, the growing conditions and the length of time since the curing process. You will also find variations on the surface of a single gourd.

I start my woodburning project by dividing the gourd surface into equal sections using pencil marks. These marks provide a guide to placement of design elements, as well as, the main art image that you want to feature on the gourd surface. Begin by drawing a circle around the center of the bottom of the gourd. I do this free hand, but you can also use a pattern or tool. You may later erase this circle or use it in your design, as I have done.

Divide this circle into eight equal parts by first dividing the circle in half, then into fourths, then into eighths. Use your eye to determine if your spacing is fairly even and make corrections. Extend the dividing lines all the way to the rim edge of the gourd.

Above, you can see the division lines I have made on the circle. You can also see how I used these lines as my placement guide for the smaller circles in my design,. This is my copyrighted Sunwave© design that I use in both my gourd art and my jewelry. With the help of the guide lines, the design is drawn free hand with a pencil, as shown. The remainder of the design is created with my burning tool (shown below). Note: I loved art as a child and frequently doodled. One of my repetitive doodles included drawing circles until I could get them nice and round! This practice naturally re-surfaced in the creation of this original design.

You can create your own design using any geometric shapes, patterns from what you find in nature including, leaves and branches, moon shapes, stars, or any combination of shapes that you find appealing and express the mood you wish to create on the gourd surface. You may have an art image in mind that will cover the entire gourd surface without an additional design element. The possibilities for creating art for your gourd projects are limitless.

Transfering the Design to Pyro Paper:
Pyro paper is a kind of paper made with a coating that will not flame or catch fire when touched with a hot burning tool. The paper will smoke some, scorch and burn away so good ventilation in your work area is required.

Above you see drawings I created for an illustrated activity book for children. All of my designs come from orginal sketches that I create from observations and my photography of nature. Since these were readily available, I incorporated them into the art on this gourd project. There are also many images available on the internet and in books and magazines that are not copyrighted and may be used freely.

I resized each image to fit the space that would be available on the gourd surface, and using the microsoft text document program on my computer, arranged them all on one page. I then printed the page onto pyro paper. As an alternative, you can draw or trace your images onto the pyro paper.

Next, cut out the individual image you want to burn onto the gourd surface and tape it to the gourd using Scotch matte transparent tape. Mold the pryo paper to the shape of the gourd as you tape it, flattening the buckled areas. Buckles/puckers in the paper will sometimes cause the paper to burn away before your burning tip has touched the surface causing your burn line to be less accurate.

You will be using this taped image as your guide to burn the outline of your image onto the gourd surface. It does not serve well as a guide for detail, however, because as the paper burns away, changes in alignment may occur. Your goal is to place burn mark outlines on the surface that can further help you in refining your design with your burning tool after the paper is pealed away. Above, you see how the paper looks after the image has been burned.

When you have finished burning the image, peel away the paper, being careful to remove all of the tape, which may sometimes be difficult to see and may later show up as it resists an application of paint or dye.

Next, using a pencil and your original image to guide you, draw in any parts of the image that you may have missed while burning and further refine the details of the image. Because this hummingbird image is placed to overlap the sunwave design above it, I have burned the hummingbird image first.

In the image below, you see the finished detail in the hummingbird image and the addition of the burned sunwave design.

The image is now ready for the application of paint and dye to complete the design.

Pyrography explained.

Wood-burning systems can be found here:  Bonnie Gibson and Detail Master System item #8421 (the burning system I currently use). You may also try initially pyroengraving using a less expensive tool found at your local craft supply store. These less expensive tools generally do not have a temperature control but can give you some experience and an idea of whether you will enjoy this way of creating art with gourds.

Pyro Paper (flame resistant paper that I was introduced to in 2000 and continue to use)  Karben Kreations

Where to buy gourds for your projects:
The cost of gourds varies depending on whether the gourd is cut and cleaned for you or whether you will handle this part of the preparation yourself. Select firm, substantial weight gourds that are cured and dried for this type of project.  You want the best quality materials for an art project that takes many hours to create and will provide many years of enjoyment.
Sandlady Gourd Farm
Welburn Gourd Farm
Amish Gourds

Books: Listed are a few of the books that I have in my library that will help inspire your gourd art designs:
The Complete Book of Gourd Craft by Ginger Summit and Jim Widess
The Decorated Gourd by Dyan Mai Peterson
Gourds with South Western Motifs by Bonnie Gibson

Other Links and Resources:

My website gourd art gallery where you can see all four bird images decorating this gourd basket.
About Gourds and Gourd Art
My gourd art tutorials
The Autumn Birds Collection of original watercolor images beginning with Autumn Cardinal
My online shop

Sandhill Cranes and Art

2012-01-08T22:20:00.004-05:00

My crane observations go back a long way. In fact, the experience of hearing and seeing my first sandhill cranes staging at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in 1999, marked the beginning of a major change in my life--a change that moved me into my passion for wildlife conservation and creating art. The two are now inseparable.

Early gourd art pieces created in 2001-2002 and inspired by sandhill cranes and whooping cranes.

What's so special about cranes? As Aldo Leopold put it in his book of essays, A Sand County Almanac: "Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language. The quality of cranes lies, I think, in this higher gamut, as yet beyond the reach of words."

Above, you see a painting I created in late November 2011 using one of my favorite sandhill crane reference images. Two sandhill cranes with their "landing gear" down are floating in for a landing at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge. I have always loved this posture. The cranes hold their wings like parachutes and dangle their legs as they float down in preparation for landing.

I also selected this image as my cover illustration for my new children's activity book, the Discover Birds Activity Book. A fun project!

This twelve-page booklet is sponsored by the Tennessee Ornithological Society (TOS) and will be available for the first time at the Tennessee Sandhill Crane Festival in Birchwood, TN this weekend, January 14th and 15th. The idea of creating an activity book for the kids that attend the festival was conceived by friend and TOS member, Cyndi Routledge, who also secured the funding and arranged for the layout and printing. I had the pleasure of creating the text and illustrations and I am delighted with the beautiful results.

The book includes bird illustrations to color, fun facts about wintering birds and conservation, and a challenging crossword puzzle to test what you've learned. My hope is that we can expand this book in coming years and continue to inspire children and their interest in birds and bird conservation.
More about this book click here.

Links and Resources:
More about the Tennessee Sandhill Crane Festival
My watercolor gallery at my website
Links to my gourd art: Gourd Art Gallery, About Gourd Art, Gourd Art Shop, Gourd Art Tutorials

Christmas Wishes

2011-12-25T09:33:00.000-05:00

A Peek at One of My Current Art Projects

2011-11-22T09:47:00.001-05:00

I have several art projects underway that have demanded my attention and caused me to temporarily disappear from blogging. But this is only a pause and means I have lots to share with you soon, including new paintings, new note cards, an exciting book review that I've been eager to share with you, and a children's activity book that I am creating in cooperation with the Tennessee Ornithological Society.

Below is the two-page center spread illustration for the activity book compiled from my many experiences observing the majestic sandhill crane. I loved creating this illustration!

The booklet will be introduced at Tennessee's Sandhill Crane Festival sponsored by the Tennessee Ornithological Society and TN Wildlife Resources Agency. The festival will be held at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge and Birchwood, TN, January 14th and 15th, 2012 and promises great entertainment and thousands of sandhill cranes. Mark your calendars for this event!

More information about the festival can be found at the following websites:

Tennessee Sandhill Crane festival website
Tennessee Ornithological Society Sandhill Crane Festival
National Geographic Geotourism Mapguide on TN's Sandhill Crane Festival

You may also want to visit my activity book created for Operation Migration, the Craniac Kid's Whooping Crane Activity Book. This activity book is free to teachers for their classrooms or may be purchased individually from Operation Migration. Click the link for more information.

The Sketchbook as a Map for Your Painting

2011-10-25T05:00:00.005-04:00

A sketch is the artist's road map, like a tool for planning your journey. Besides being its own form of art and a record of observations, turning to your sketchbook to work out decisions about your painting before you start can be invaluable.

Before I started my painting of this Northern Harrier, I had a number of decisions to make. As soon as I received the request for this painting to honor a friend, I had a good idea of the posture I wanted the bird in for this painting, and I also had an idea of the way the background would look--open rolling fields common to east Tennessee. Decisions about color, values, and a landscape arrangement that would best highlight this bird were next. To help, I turned to my sketchbook for color mixing and to make value studies.

Above left, you see a pencil sketch of the values, relative lights and darks for the landscape, and to the right another sketch of the same arrangement using watercolor. It was this little sketch to the right that gave me the first glimpse of the scene I had in mind. I was still exploring colors at this point, deciding whether to use Payne's gray more prominently, or to remain with French Ultramarine, my favorite blue for mixing with Burnt Sienna to create neutrals. You can see some of the neutrals possible in the first image above, along with a nice selection of autumn greens made with Quinacridone Gold and French Ultramarine. Below, another series of color explorations with Payne's Grey on watercolor paper.

In the end, I settled on the colors that were the most pleasing to my eye and familiar to me, Winsor Newton's French Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Quinacridone Gold, and a touch of New Gamboge. All other colors you see are made from this primary palette.

Unlike other hawks that hunt from a perch, the Northern Harrier hunts for small mammals gliding low over open fields to find its prey, aided by its acute hearing. Historically this species was especially impacted during the spraying of DDT in the 1970's. Northern Harriers have a unique and spectacular flight display called, 'sky dancing', involving high speed climbs, dives and spiraling loops to attract their mate. While the nesting of other hawks failed due to egg shells too thin to incubate, Northern harriers were so weakened by the pesticide that they could not carry out their elaborate courtship displays and breeding almost completely stopped. It took many years longer for this species to recover after the banning of DDT in this country.

Though considered stable or slightly declining currently, Northern Harriers are impacted by the loss of wetlands, prairies and changing farming practices.

11 x 14 watercolor on Arches 140# coldpress paper.

Links and resources:

To see the first post on this painting visit: A Northern Harrier Hunting
More information about Northern Harriers at Cornell
More about the use of your sketchbook in creating a painting in: The Richness of Watercolor
You may also enjoy visiting my Purple Martin painting, showing a different approach to painting a bird in its habitat.

A Northern Harrier Hunting

2011-10-21T07:48:00.000-04:00

Not all paintings happen with ease. I can often observe a bird, its behavior, its habitat, and have good reference photos from which to work before I begin. But that wasn't the case with this painting.

I have always enjoyed painting the close-up views of birds that give you not only a sense of its habitat but also some beautiful detail. But close-up views are not the way we generally see a Northern Harrier, a beautiful raptor species in a family all its own, that hunts in a low glide over open fields and is one of the few birds that can hover over its prey for a prolonged period before striking. If you once see this bird in action, you will thrill every time you encounter one.

A number of years ago, while living in a rural area of east Tennessee, I had the special experience of seeing Northern Harriers that were wintering over. Every evening I took great enjoyment in watching with binoculars as they glided over our fields hunting before roosting for the night. This has endeared this bird to me as one of my favorite species, one that stirred my excitement forward and lead me to to spend more time observing birds.

Above you see a collection of some of my explorations before I actually painted this painting. These included value sketches of the landscape's foreground, mid-ground and background, experiments with shapes in the design arrangement, and trying out colors and color-mixing while I settled on the best color combination to represent the scene and season.

My first challenge was the bird. Northern Harriers are just arriving in Tennessee now, not to mention they are difficult to observe and photograph. You generally have to know where they roost and hunt in order to be productive in capturing them. So, instead, I searched the internet and my books, finding a variety of images, both male and female, to help me with the details as I created the hovering posture of my subject. Above you see my initial sketches of the bird, a male on the left, female on the right. And below, a 2009 sketch I also referenced that I created after observing a Northern harrier hunting at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin.

Once I settled on the posture of the bird and his location in the painting, my next focus was the landscape and the values that would help make my subject the center of focus.

Next: Sketches and color exploration

Links and References:
More information about Northern Harriers at Cornell
Other sketches of a Northern Harrier in flight
More about the use of sketches in creating a painting in: The Richness of Watercolor

Part II--A Book, A Teacher, and Intuitive Learning

2011-10-08T17:10:00.003-04:00

Have you ever wanted to do something so badly, that you were equally afraid you couldn't? That pretty much sums up how I felt about becoming an artist. And just to set that worry straight for any readers that feel something similar, if you love art and have always wanted to draw or paint, you already are an artist. The becoming part is simply a matter of becoming familiar with the medium and developing skills through practice.

Even though I was disheartened by my initial class, my interest in watercolor did not lessen. I browsed the local art store for books and magazines to aid my attempts to paint. It was during one of these visits that I found the treasure that shaped my art endeavors for the next ten years, a book called, Watercolor: A New Beginning, by Ann K. Lindsay.

I opened the book while still in the store, as we often do, to leaf through it to see what it had to say. I found topics like, "Being of Two Minds", describing the rational vs. the intuitive mind and how these two parts of our brain learn and approach things differently; "Managing Your Inner Critic" suggesting ways to manage your inner fear and why that critic develops inside; and, "Just in Case", addressing feelings of fear and resistance while trying demonstrations in the book. Ann writes: "Art is our heart coming right out of us onto the paper, into the world; no wonder we feel so vulnerable and easily discouraged".

This was the book and the instructor I had been looking for. In the book, I found step-by-step instructions that actually started at the beginning with putting paint in the palette, suggesting inexpensive ways to get started. Subsequent chapters demonstrated ways to play with pigment and water on paper, covered the basics on colors explaining primary, secondary, tertiary and neutral colors, and progressed to painting a subject using values with tips on drawing, and adding backgrounds to your paintings.

Exploring how different pigments react to salt.

This book, with its nurturing and encouraging approach, gave me the courage to feel excited about watercolor, again. So excited in fact, I traveled from east Tennessee to upper state New York the next summer, in 2000, to take what I consider to be my first watercolor class, this time with Ann Lindsay. This journey was an adventure and magnificent in so many ways. But most of all, I want to say a little more to you about that tenderness we feel as beginning artists, a feeling that can often hold us back.

Even in the gentle and nurturing environment of a class of true beginners with an intuitive and mindful instructor, my first attempt to put my art out into the world in that first day of class was truly frightening.

In my journal I wrote:
July 31st, 2000: [Monday--day one] "I had a panic attack--throat closing, flushed, tears--over the show-and-tell thing we did after the first exercise today. How could I be self-conscious, uneasy over splashing color and water on paper in no particular pattern? It is beyond my understanding sometimes, what sets off my anxiety."

August 4th: [Friday night, as the week of classes ended] "I have enjoyed this tremendously....Ann says, art is the soul coming out on paper. Maybe that's why this art is so very sensitive an issue for me. There aren't too many ways that I share my soul with others....When I shift to expressing who I am inside, talk about me, whether in a novel or a watercolor or sketch or photograph, that is a very sensitive moment. I feel vulnerable and exposed. Hence, my panic attack on the first day of class. It was less about what we were looking at, what I had created on paper, and more about how much I have always wanted to do this."

And to all of you artists out there--keep painting!

Links and Resources:

Part I to this post: Books, A Difficult Start and A Passion for Watercolor

Ann K Lindsay's website

Watercolor: A New Beginning. Even though this book is out of print, I highly recommend it for everyone who loves watercolor. It's a beginning for beginners and a "new beginning" for watercolor artists at any level. You may find signed copies from the author here. Click these links for book contents and excerpts.

Secondary market copies at Amazon can be found here: Watercolor: A New Beginning

Books, A Difficult Start, and A Passion for Watercolor

2011-09-26T08:23:00.003-04:00

I love books in general, but art books rank high on my list these days. Though I've had some of the books you see for a while, in the absence of time and opportunity to travel away from home to take art workshops lately, I've added a few more to my shelves as a way of making sure there is plenty of creative stimulation available for art practice.

Why do I travel away from home to take workshops, you might ask? Because, along with the opportunity to learn from a talented instructor, I get the advantage of a vacation-like atmosphere that is nurturing, focused on something I love, and that takes me completely away from my day-to-day responsibilities. It is similar to the renewing affect of vacations in general, but with the added benefit of time solely devoted to watercolor play and the extra stimulation of a talented instructor and creative community energy. In fact, a special book and travel to an out-of-state watercolor workshop set the stage for my journey into watercolor after serious beginner discouragement.

I came into the world loving art and drawing, but watercolor was not a medium I was exposed to at a young age. I just admired it greatly. Obviously the desire to create art was re-kindling in me in 1999. My time and energies had been caught up in volunteer writing for professional projects in the years preceding. But as I freed myself from those responsibilities, my urge to return to art strengthened and I signed up for a local "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" workshop.

I was nervous early in those class sessions, as though I had lost all confidence in my drawing ability and needed someone to tell me I could still draw after so many years of neglect. Above and below, you see portraits that I sketched in class. They were drawn from photos turned upside down, a maneuver that encourages the artist's brain to stop thinking in symbols (drawing what you think should be there) and to see the linear and spacial relationships more clearly. This was heartening and amazing, both to see my own drawings, and the others produced by people who had never attempted to draw.

Encouraged, I ventured into my first watercolor class, a weekly three hour class of "multi-level students, from beginners to advanced" held at a local art supply store. I was the only beginner in the class. The other students had taken from this instructor previously, had wonderful things to say about her, and had sophisticated projects already underway. I don't think the instructor was prepared for a person at the very basic beginner level like me, one who had not quite grasped how one was supposed to arrange tube paints in the palette and mix them with water.

Above, four value studies varying placement of dark and light values. A bit of a mess.

The class turned out to be a disaster for me, though in hindsight, I'm glad I had this experience. Perhaps because she had run out of suggestions for what I should do next, in the last hour of one of my classes mid-way through the course, I was instructed to create the value studies you see above, varying the placement of dark and light with each repetition. Without any introduction to values and how they are used, I not only failed to understand the point of this exercise, I felt like the child who'd been sent to the corner to do busy work. Needless to say, this was not fun. I came away from the experience so bored and bewildered that I did not finish the classes. I closed my palette, concluded I couldn't do watercolor, and didn't open my palette again for another year.

It is this type of experience, technique before play, that often leads people to believe that watercolor is such a difficult medium. It's not. It's delightful, fun and easy to love!

Next: Reviving my watercolor passion--A Book, A Teacher, and Intuitive Learning

For more on upside-down drawing, visit: The Practice of Seeing

Watch for book reviews of some of the books you see above along with more demonstrations to help you (and me) play with watercolor!

Sketching Hummingbirds in Flight

2011-09-20T21:46:00.003-04:00

I have had the pleasure of enjoying plentiful hummingbirds during this migration season. What a joy! Hummingbirds from the northern states and Canada begin migrating through Tennessee as early as July, but the largest numbers of migrants have been moving through this month. So I've taken this opportunity to sit outside with them and enjoy them as often as I can and last weekend, I tried sketching them while I watched.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds beat their wings at a rate of 40-80 beats per second, and their flight speed varies from 30 to 50 mph. Add to that, the fact that they are high-tempered and very territorial when it comes to their nectar source and you have a busy subject. Fortunately, they do hover in place from time to time, perch, and sometimes settle down for brief periods to drink. With as many as a dozen visiting the feeders at once, there was no shortage of replacement subjects when the one I was sketching disappeared.

It was also fascinating to notice how my approach to sketching changed during this experience, as memory and focus adjusted from sketching a still subject to trying to capture one that is constantly in motion. My focus gradually began to narrow as effort continued, and I settled on capturing simple lines, like the curve of the back, the shape of the tummy, the spread of the tail feathers, or the line of the top of the head.

It is while you're sketching that you begin to "see" differently, turning off symbolic memory and concentrating on what you're actually seeing right in front of you. And then your focus naturally zooms in, discarding unnecessary details, getting down that shape you've been searching for, no matter how many tries and birds it takes to capture it. While doing this you are relying heavily on your visual memory and your mind begins to fine-tune its focus, simplifying shapes to accommodate the speed with which you're observing.

After I had sketched for more than an hour, I took a break and picked up my camera and snapped images, paying little attention to light or focus, simply trying to capture some of the same flight shapes I had seen while sketching. When I came inside, I created a digital file of a six of these images, set them into motion as a slide show on my laptop, and sketched them while the slide show was in motion. I was surprised and delighted at how easy it became to capture the shapes at this speed, a speed far slower than the birds, themselves. At the slide show speed of several seconds per image, sketching seemed effortless! I would not have felt that way prior to my attempt to sketch the hummers outside.

It is hard to explain the satisfaction I felt after this effort. Not only did it provide a wonderful opportunity to see hummingbirds differently, it was a discovery in learning, in understanding not only the abilities within the mind to adjust visual memory to what is needed to capture the subject, but the amazing amount of information that is gleaned while experiencing a subject with that kind of focus. The last image you see above is my favorite. Even though it was sketched from the slide show, it was sketched with an ease I had not experienced before, and that was fun! That's when I realized how much I had learned!

To see more of my hummingbird sketches and paintings, visit: Hummingbirds

To see some of my photographs and the delightful hummers visiting my feeders, visit: Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at Vickie Henderson Art.

Watercolor Cards for Handy Reference

2011-09-15T06:00:00.005-04:00

It's always fun to try out new pigments. I've had several in mind for a while that I've noticed in other artist's palettes. Anytime you open an art book from your shelf or attend an art class, you will usually discover the author/artist's palette selection and a discussion of warm and cool colors. Many artists have more than one grouping of colors they enjoy using, depending on the subject and the season. Others use the same color wheel most of the time. This is a matter of preference and what appeals to your eye.
Having a palette already selected before you begin painting makes decisions easier while you work. And trying out new pigments is a bit like holiday magic. This week, I visited Jerry's Artarama and returned home with two new brushes and four new tubes of paint, all Winsor Newton.

Above, Winsor Newton squirrel mop for juicy washes (larger brush), and a round #3 sable for detail work. Tube paints: Perylene Maroon, Cobalt Turquoise, Antwerp blue, and Cadmium Yellow.

Though Winsor Newton tube paints are now marked with letters signifying their translucent characteristics, for example, "T" for translucent, O for Opaque and "S's" for those in between, such as SO (semi-opaque), I like to display my pigments on a handy card so I can see the pigment qualities in an instant. Different brand pigments by the same pigment name can be very different in both brilliance and translucence.

Above you can clearly see the opaque characteristics of WN Lemon Yellow and WN Raw Sienna. You can also see that Van Gogh Raw Sienna is a different shade of pigment when compared to the WN watercolor pigment by the same name.

The "cards" I use are simply the back side of a used piece of 140# coldpress watercolor paper torn into same-size strips. On one side create a black permanent magic marker strip. If you paint across this strip and the pigment allows you to see right through to the black, you have a very translucent pigment that will create wonderful glazes. If the pigment is visible on top of the black strip, you get a sense of the granular quality and the opaqueness of your pigment, qualities that add texture and variety to your work.

Visit these Winsor Newton pages for more information on Watercolor pigments and Hints and Tips

Sunflower Study II--A Fun Experiment

2011-09-12T10:43:00.004-04:00

What do you do when you're feeling frustrated with something that's happening in the midst of your painting? The best suggestion I have, stop right there and step back. Leave the painting alone for a few hours or a few days. Work on a different painting, or do something entirely different, and come back to it when you and your eyes are fresh again, and see what you think.

This crossroad has happened to me many times. Sometimes I succeed in walking away, other times I don't. What is happening in that moment of frustration, at least one possibility--we are too "close" to the work, literally and emotionally. Our left brain, with its specialty in technical skills, may have become too engaged in what it thinks "should" be happening, and is failing to let the painting create its own unique possibilities.

Below, you see, Sunlit Afternoon, a painting that I almost tossed in a moment of frustration. This painting has been one of my favorites since I painted it five years ago. Now, I would paint the adult whooping crane differently, showing more plumage details and shading, but I still love the interaction the painting expresses and its overall affect.

In order to finish this painting, I had to set it aside for several days and come back to it. I was having trouble with the water's edge, thinking it was too dark, and in the moment of frustration, not satisfied with any change I made. Later when I came back to it, I found myself saying, now what was it I disliked so much?

The sunflower painting you see in the top image began with a variegated wash of yellows with one of the pigments being yellow ochre (above left). Some pigments have a grainy texture, and with the addition of salt, will create large patterns of moved pigment, depending upon the wetness of the area. Even though I love that feathered area created by the salt, as I was beginning to paint more detail in the sunflower, I decided the painting was much to busy. I concluded that the light salted area competed with the main subject, the sunflower and butterfly. Now, I'm not so sure. This would have been a good time to pause and wait. But I didn't. I continued, adding color in some areas and lifting color in others.

Below, is the part of the painting I like the most, largely because it's fresh and clean, and I like the colors. Cropped a little differently, it could make a small painting on its own.

And below, you see the area I like the least, the area I couldn't leave alone. My primary reason for disliking it, is that I was indecisive while working on it. I added blue to the salted whites, changed purple shadows to blue, and then had some indecision about the colors used around the edges of the sunflower petals. If I tuck it away for a while, gain more distance from the experience, and look at it again later, my attitude toward it may change.

Sunflowers are fun to paint and there are any variety of ways to paint them. Plus, they are abstract in shape, and reflect many different colors in those withering petals--purple, magenta, burnt sienna, brown, violet. Because of these qualities, clear, dynamic colors and the sparkle of light are the elements that provide the most excitement. I haven't tossed this painting, but I will try another one, hoping that all I learned from this one will coming tumbling out onto the paper in the next.

Not every painting we begin makes a great painting, but there is plenty to value in the experience of painting itself. Every time I paint, I learn, gain confidence, get to know the pigments and how they interact with water and paper, and enjoy all the surprise discoveries that make watercolor such an exciting medium.

Links and Resources:
My first sunflower study can be found here: Sunflower Study
For more posts on practice and confidence visit: The Illusive Nature of Confidence and Kindergarten Efforts.
For a discussion on scrubbing or lifting paint, visit: Sketching a Limpkin

Hummingbird Studies--Movement and Light

2011-09-08T08:15:00.009-04:00

I will just about come up with any excuse to sit outside with hummingbirds this time of year. Since tropical storm Lee has pushed rain and colder air our way in Tennessee, there has been an increased mob of hummingbirds gathered around my five feeders. They are especially active in the early morning and late evenings, just before departing to continue their migration as night migrants.

Yesterday evening, while refilling a couple of feeders, I marveled as all feeders were occupied with 3-4 hummers at a time. No sooner did they finish their drink, than they were back to fanning tails, chirping and giving chase. Hummingbirds in flight are not easy to see for more than a few seconds, let alone, sketch, so I rely on my camera to give me details about posture and plumage.

Even using my camera (Canon Rebel xi with 300 mm zoom lens) is a delightful challenge. It requires patience, anticipation and steady nerves. But what it also gives me is a closer view. My current binoculars will not focus within the shorter distances needed for sketching, so my camera serves as a substitute, and occasionally gives me a nice in-flight reference image.

Right now I am delighting in watching hummingbird behavior. Mature birds and juveniles behave very differently. When trying to capture these birds in a sketch, it is also a challenge to try to capture the light and movement which is so much a part of the personality of hummers. So after hours of watching them, I enjoy trying to capture what I've internalized in a sketch. This is resulting in a series of hummingbird studies. I could also label them studies of movement and light.

I am sure that each study will continue to look very different, as these two do. These are playful experiments. My challenge is to not 'mess' with what's happening on the page, but let the water and pigment move freely. While painting, I'm focusing on the experience of hummingbirds, rather than the detail of the bird. That's my goal, at least. Those beautiful details are hard to resist!

Bloom or watermark created by dropping clear water into pigment on paper.

A different watermark created by dropping clear water into an area that has been salted.

You can find more of my hummingbird art in my bird art gallery at my website, Vickie Henderson Art.
To see some of my recent hummingbird photography, visit Humming Bird Days of Summer.

August Demonstration--Wet-in-Wet Coneflowers

2011-09-05T10:57:00.004-04:00

I was delighted when I received a comment from Cora, after my post, Coneflowers--Wet-in-Wet and the Colors of White. In her comment she told me she had practiced painting white coneflowers using the August demonstration example and posted them on her blog, Journeys with Watercolors.

Below you see the example that she liked best, her first try. I think it is my favorite too, because of that nice variation in the center where she dropped color into color, and the lovely whites that resulted.

Seeing her blog post excited me for several reasons. First of all, she tried my practice example and shared it, and that was fun. Secondly, when I read her profile description, I discovered that she is a newly practicing artist in the Netherlands, and she intends to post her efforts no matter what the results. Wow, I thought. That takes courage--the courage to create your own stage and build a community for practicing art. I know from my own experience, that every effort will not only strengthen her skills, but each time she posts her work, her art practice will benefit in boldness. One of the many pleasures of blogging today is that we have a ready-made community of individuals who are also learning, practicing, enjoying creating art and sharing it. It's a great opportunity for both motivating and encouraging our art practice. .

Because I haven't had an art class vacation in the past two years--that is, leaving town for a week and doing little else but painting watercolor--seeing Cora's practice examples also reminded me of one of the fun moments in art class that I've missed lately, the sharing time when everyone shows their efforts after a work session. These were moments of enjoyment and satisfaction for me. I always marveled at how beautiful everyone's work was, the uniqueness of each person's style, and easily found something to admire in each person's efforts.

A coneflower sketch I created in 2000.

This reminds me to say to you what I often have to say to myself. When you are looking at your finished work and don't find yourself totally loving it, focus in on an area of the painting that attracts you, that you particularly like and notice why it appeals to you. Then find the area that doesn't appeal to you and decide what you don't like about it. Think about what you would like to see happening differently there. Remember that the special value in those 'dislike' areas is the learning that took place while you were creating it.

And all this information will be available to you the next time you paint!

August demonstration: Wet-in-Wet and the Colors of White
For an easy-to-print version, visit the same demonstration published on my website.
Cora's Journeys with Watercolor
Another post on the value of practice, Practice is the Magic of Talent.

Eastern Screech Owl--The Finish

2011-08-30T07:56:00.000-04:00

Sometimes art work gets finished in an orderly fashion. You move through the work from start to finish in a steady progression. At other times, the project gets set aside for many different reasons, mostly a shortage of time, interruptions, something else inspiring happens, or an indecision may stall the finish.

In the case of this owl, it was a persistent indecision about those eyes. When you wake a sleeping screech owl, they don't have a very happy expression on their face. This owl was roosting in a screech owl nest box, sleeping as owls do during the day in late November of 2009. The opportunity to see him up close was so special. There was only time for some quick reference photos, and the one I used for this sketch page was taken in overcast conditions. No light reflected in those eyes, making that beautiful face even more menacing than it naturally would be under these circumstances. So when I initially painted the sketch page, I painted the dark pupils reflecting no light, as in the photo. As you can see, this does not result in an appealing expression. Light brings life into our wildlife sketches.

I was surprised when I saw how long ago I first created this sketch. I had finished the right side of the face, leaving the left unfinished and the dark eyes scrubbed out. Yesterday, when I came across this unfinished sketch, I was again struck by the beauty of this magnificent little bird, our only small eastern owl with ear tufts (feathers). Screech owls are only about 7-10" in height and are both predators (omnivores) and prey for larger owls and hawks.

While visiting this sketchbook, I looked at more pages. Many were finished, giving me a feeling of deep satisfaction and pleasant memories of the moments they captured. Others were left blank with a note about what I wanted to paint in that space, and still others had a pencil sketch. Any of your sketchbooks look like this?

Above, you see a delightful moment in a cold November rain when a tufted titmouse was singing his heart out just beyond my patio in the midst of red holly berries. I look forward to finishing this page soon.

Owls are among the most beautiful of birds, with very intricate feathering patterns around their face forming the facial disk that is characteristic of all owls. The facial disk is composed of stiff, lacy feathers that serve to direct air flow and aid vision and hearing. But beyond function these feathers are exquisitely beautiful! The feather tufts that we often call "ears" help camouflage the owl while it sleeps during the day.

Eastern screech owls come in two colors, the rufous or red phase you see here and a gray phase.

To see more of the finished pages of this sketchbook, click this gallery link to my website.

To learn more about the eastern screech owl, visit Cornell's page on this species. Be sure to listen to the owl's call!

Coneflowers--Wet-in-Wet and the Colors of White

2011-08-27T12:13:00.004-04:00

Though it is late in the growing season, I had the urge to plant flowers this past week. It could have been because I ran across some of my favorite perennials that I couldn't find earlier in the season--coreopsis and coneflowers.

Besides the insects and birds that flowers attract, they are beautiful and fun to paint! Yesterday, I enjoyed an opportunity to sit near these garden additions and create coneflowers in my sketchbook using brush and paint without the detail of drawing. Coneflowers have a distinctive shape with daisy-like petals that loosely droop. How deeply the petals droop depends on the stage of the flower's maturity. This characteristic makes them good subjects for loose painting. By that, I mean watery painting with less concern about detail.

Besides planting purple coneflowers, I also planted a white coneflower variety. The white in flowers is particularly fun to paint. "White" in a watercolor painting is the lightest color/value in your painting. Since white flower petals generally reflect the colors around them, they offer a fun opportunity to play with wet-in-wet painting, letting the colors blend on the paper and a brush stroke of clean water carry pale pigment into petal shapes. I'll show you what I mean.

Below, you see how I created the watery flower images you see on the right hand side of the sketchbook at the top of this post. If you would like to give this way of creating coneflowers a try, use one of the images above, or a flower from your own garden or collection of images as a guide. If you already have experience with this type of painting, this exercise makes a fun and relaxing practice.

On dry paper, paint a coneflower head shape, as shown below. I used WN Quinacridone gold.

Have two containers of water handy, one to rinse your brush between colors, the other to load your brush with clean water. Brush clean water along the edge of the painted area and bring it down to form the shape of the flower head, as shown below. Leaving white areas is one way to add interest and give the impression of light reflection. Learning how much water your brush holds and how much you need to use comes with practice.

While this area is still wet, drop in some cerulean blue (or another blue of your choice) along the bottom edge.

Rinse your brush and load it with clean water. Touching the edge of the bottom of the cone shape, paint a petal shape with clear water coming down from the cone center. Pigment will flow into the water left by the brush stroke. Tilt your paper if needed to aid this movement.

Continue to create petal shapes with brush strokes of water. I enjoy the surprise of this technique and the richness of the color that is created when pigment is dropped into pigment. The cerulean blue and quinacridone gold blend to create a nice green like the underlying color seen at the base of the yellow and orange blossoms of the coneflower head.

In the next study, I dropped in WN French ultramarine blue and a touch of Daniel Smith Alizarin Crimson along the bottom edge.

Below, you see the variation that resulted.

Try a series of these studies and enjoy seeing a variety of interpretations of these lovely flowers. Try adding a stem and a leaf. And if you try this exercise and post your results on your blog, send me a link. If you would like, I can post the link here. If you don't have your own blog, and would like to share your results here, send an image to me at: viclcsw (at) aol (dot) com. Below, you see more of my studies.

I've used a scrap sheet of watercolor paper (with a rejected painting on the other side) and divided it with artist tape to create six separate painting areas for these studies.

Coneflowers are part of the aster (asteraceae) family, along with sunflowers and, like sunflowers, have a flower head with many tiny blossoms. This is clearly one of my favorite flower families!

For an easy-to-print version of this demonstration, visit the same demo published on my website.
For more information on coneflowers visit Wiki's Coneflowers page.

Sunflower Study

2011-08-19T05:00:00.006-04:00

I have always enjoyed sunflowers. They have so much character.

Fresh, lively, tall and strong, sunflowers are full of energy rich seeds for birds and other wildlife. And I love the artsy, withered petals that remain as the seed heads mature. Their twisted shapes are intriguing, and full of subtle colors--maroon, violet, gold, burnt sienna, yellow ochra, thin veils of purple, and deeper shades of purple in the shadows. After enjoying a stroll through a sunflower field at Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge, a favorite natural area near my east Tennessee home, I have a collection of images of sunflowers of all sizes, shapes and maturity levels, giving me plenty of inspiration and reference for painting.

Flowers are perfect subjects for practice and for playing around with different ways to interpret color and light in watercolor. Above you see that I taped the paper to a backboard and set it on a table easel. I also printed both a color and a black and white image of the subject. The black and white image often allows you to see the values more clearly and encourages the use of your imagination in defining areas of light.

To create the background, I wet the paper with brush strokes of clear water, and brushed on a wash of Winsor Newton New gamboge, Arylide yellow and Cerulean blue. As I worked, I allowed these colors to blend naturally as they moved on the paper. After this initial wash dried completely, I added color to the sunflower,working around the petals and the leaves, letting colors blend wet in wet.

I added color to the butterfly early in the painting so I could see how it looked with the background and all that rich sunflower yellow. When I saw the butterfly on the sunflower in the field, I thought its pale under wings would not show up well enough to create a nice center of interest in a painting. But, I was pleasantly surprised as the butterfly began to take shape in this study.

Above you see I have lightly scrubbed the outer edge of the butterfly's wing to allow it to blend more with the background. I have also lightened the area along the top of the butterfly's wing and the tip to give the impression of light.

What we generally refer to as the bloom on a sunflower is really a large inflorescence or sunflower head that contains 1,000 to 2,000 individual flowers joined together at a receptacle base.

Links and resources:

The watercolor study, "American Lady and Sunflower", is available for purchase in my online shop.
Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) information
About the American Lady at Butterflies and Moths of North America
Scrubbing in watercolor
Posts with paintings of butterflies and flowers, the most recent post will be first.