Vickie's Sketchbook

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: $18.95 Pre-order now!

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.

Forever A Student

2011-08-15T19:37:00.007-04:00

I think I will forever be a student. I love to learn, explore, venture past the edge of what I know, into the fresh and new. It's exhilerating. It expands my world and brings me joy and laughter.

This is how I feel about watercolor, creating gourd art, about watching and learning about birds and other favorite nature subjects, and about life. Creativity comes from a deep place and it can be tapped by many different activities. Eventually, they all come together in a compelling desire to create. I want to have plenty of choices at my finger tips when I make art and write, choices available from my mental library, so I can snatch anyone of them and use them at the moment I feel inspired.

This is what makes practice so valuable. Practice is play time, an unfettered chance to explore, exercise curiosity, try something new without knowing how it will turn out. The benefits? Using current skills and pushing beyond them, feeling your way through a decision, tapping your senses for help, using your intuitive abilities, and opening up to greet whatever you learn--all of these get exercised when you try something new! This is great for the soul, great for building courage, and great for having fun! When the results are disappointing, you gain a sense of what to do differently (the value of mistakes), and when something turns out beautifully, it's exhilarating. You expand your wings and your world enlarges.

After reading Jean Haines' book How to Paint Colour and Light in Watercolour, I wanted to give her suggestions a try. I was drawn to the book because of the boldness and movement of her style. What you see here is an exercise from her blog, a monthly challenge. The August challenge was to paint a shell (click on the link to see the image on Jean's blog).

Below, you see the point at which I was thinking this is a mess! When I started adding shape and shading to the shell, I ran into new challenges. But I kept going and used more contrast. Scroll to the top again to see the finished study.

I initially worked without sketching, a big challenge for me. I love to draw. But it is also clear to me that when I sketch, I naturally limit myself by trying to "obey" the lines. It's like coloring inside the lines as a child and loosing your expressive freedom. Watercolor doesn't like to behave that way. It likes to move. Learning about that movement and keeping it in mind as you go is a great way to get to know the medium. It's also a great way to learn more about yourself. How do you work your way through obstacles?

"Painting the light" that is reflected on and around a subject is a great exercise to challenge your ability to see light and to express it on paper. As I was painting this shell I thought of many other ways I could approach the subject and the light.

Links and Resources:

Visit my review of Colour and Light on this blog.
How to Paint Colour and Light in Watercolour by Jean Haines is available online at Amazon with the "look inside" feature.
Also be sure and visit Jean's blog: Watercolours with Life, to learn more about her products, workshops and enjoy seeing more of her painting activities.

How to Paint Colour and Light in Watercolour--Jean Haines

2011-08-12T17:31:00.001-04:00

How to Paint Colour and Light in Watercolour, by Jean Haines, is a lucious book full of the artist's vibrant paintings and her jewels of wisdom, as she shares her style and how she achieves it. And that style is unique, characterized by no pencil sketching before painting--just loose and joyful applications of color, light, and imagination.

While painting Jean likes to "break rules", letting the water and pigment flow, forgoing conventional efforts to control the medium. Instead, she aims for a painting that gives a fresh and unique interpretation of the subject leaving plenty of room for the viewer's imagination. This means blooms (watermarks) and drips are welcome, as well as, exciting and unusual combinations of color. She encourages every artist to practice, experiment, and above all, smile and enjoy the process of discovering their own unique style of painting.

For the eager artist student, Jean introduces her favorite materials, important things to know about using color, ways of seeing light and painting it, a range of watercolor techniques, and some basics to keep in mind while arranging a painting's composition. The last chapter is devoted to three demonstrations that the reader will find useful for practice. And throughout the book, you will find easy to read boxes with quick tips and "try this" exercises to get you painting.

My favorite sections of this book are the two chapters on light: Light and how we see it, and Painting Light. Jean introduces the topic of painting light, by saying: "If you think seeing light is exciting , try deliberately setting out to paint it! Put the subject completely out of your mind and focus only on where you can see light" That caught my attention. Put the subject out of your mind and paint the light---an intriguing idea that made me eager to get started. And in these two chapters, Jean suggests a number of ways to achieve this.

An exciting book you won't want to miss for its ability to loosen up your watercolor practice, and stimulate your thinking about color and light.

How to Paint Color and Light in Watercolour by Jean Haines is available online at Amazon with the "look inside" feature.
Also visit Jean's blog: Watercolours with Life, to learn more about her products and workshops and enjoy seeing more of her paintings and activities.

Purple Martin with Prey--The Finish

2011-07-28T08:54:00.003-04:00

Purple martins are secondary cavity nesters, birds that rely on other birds to make the cavity for their nests. But in the course of history, both natural nesting cavities diminished and humans began furnishing nesting cavities. Just how long ago humans began providing cavities is not certain, but some believe that Native Americans began this tradition. People loved the birds, and the birds learned that fewer predators were found around humans. Martins in the eastern United States now rely exclusively on human furnished cavities for nesting.

These clusters of white gourd-shaped cavities that dot our rural landscapes, are now as much a part of the purple martin ecology, as the flying insects they capture on the wing.

In the above image, you see both the under-painting of rose and gold that I've initially applied to the martin and the additional colors I'm adding as I apply glazes. The martin's color will change with each application of thin veils of color. My eyes see blackish wings with a bluer sheen on the body feathers. To create this distinction in color, I add burnt sienna to French ultramarine, giving the wings a more neutral and darker hue than the body. While applying additional glazes to one area of the bird at a time, I let my eye lead me. My goal is a darker martin with color showing through giving the impression of light reflecting off the feathers.

In order to make the background trees recede, I darken them with several more glazes of French ultramarine. Below, I have added sketched detail to the martin gourds and the background trees.

These are the marks that guide my negative painting, the painting of the space between and under the trees, giving more shadow and depth.

Leaving the painting for a while to allow the paint to dry, I returned to discover that my tree trunks looked rather puny. They are behind the martin housing pole, but they should not appear so slender as they are depicted in the above image. It's one of those moments when you say, "good grief". But, these corrections happen all the time. When you are painting, you are close to the work and proportions have a different appearance. Stepping back and stepping away are both a very important part of checking the overall appearance of what's happening on the paper. Perspective changes when you are taking in a larger, more distant view. Below, I begin to correct these shapes by lightly lifting color with my scrub brush, expanding and varying the trunk shapes.

Below you see how the trunks appear after adding some color and shading. I have added depth and variation to the tree tops in the same way. Additionally, separate glazes of rose and gold, give the impression of the sun's glow on the horizon. I've added a hint of these colors to the white gourds and the wing tip, as well.

Below, I begin to play with the dragonfly. I love color and adding the orange (burnt sienna and quinacrodone gold) was a special moment of fun. Orange and blue are opposites on the color wheel, and you can see how the two colors sparkle when placed next to each other. I don't leave the colors this bright, both for realistic reasons and because I don't want the dragonfly to compete with the martin. It is included as a dynamic part of the subject, giving the viewer information about the bird and its behavior.

The finishing work included the addition of more glazes and color to darken the martin and add shadow. For this you get to use your imagination! I got so focused on the painting toward the end, that I forgot to take images! Below, you see the finished work.

I am excited that "Purple Martin with Prey" will be on display at the Purple Martin Conservation Association's convention in Erie, PA, August 11, 12 and 13th, and will be available for purchase at the fund-raising auction! A special thank you to Graig Kern, for this opportunity.

11 x 14 inch watercolor on Arches 140# cold press paper. Palette: WN Ultramarine Blue, WN Burnt Sienna, WN Quinacridone Gold, WN New Gamboge, WN Permanent Rose, a touch of WN Cerulean.

Links and Resources:

To see all my posts on this purple martin painting project, visit: purple martins. The most recent post will be first. You may also enjoy my reports on my visits to the martin colony at Vickie Henderson Art.

Click the links to learn more about negative painting and scrubbing.

To learn more about purple martins visit the Purple Martin Conservation Society

Purple Martins--The Painting

2011-07-25T05:00:00.003-04:00

Purple Martin with Prey--a fun and challenging painting.

Martins are insectivores, averaging speeds of 17-27 mph as they capture insects in flight. Despite hours of observation, I was never invited along on one of those flights to see what the world looks like from up there! So, when I selected this painting composition, I knew everything in the painting would be created from a combination of observations and my imagination.

When the weather is clear, early morning skies are a clear wash of light,

with a touch of pink and gold reflecting from the horizon onto objects below. My first challenge was creating a smooth wash of color for the sky. In order to do this, I needed to protect the white on the bird and dragonfly, as well as the gourds in the background. The reason for this is primarily my freedom in applying paint. I don't want to have to worry about where my paint is going while I'm also trying to achieve a flat wash.

Flat washes are made with even overlapping strokes of color across a tilted page. The paint then flows smoothly downward as it is drying.

To save the whites I applied Winsor Newton masking fluid using a wooden skewer in larger areas, and a straightened paper clip for the thin lines of the dragonfly's wings. The masking fluid adheres to these tools and can be dropped and dragged along the line on the page. While using the paperclip, more care is required to avoid scratching the paper.

Below, you see the sky wash after it is applied. The trees were added before the wash was completely dry.

The paint must be allowed to dry completely before the mask is removed. No assistance from a dryer to hurry things up in this case. Heat causes the rubbery substance in the masking fluid to deteriorate and fuse with the paper, making removal problematic.

The mask bottle instructions suggest using an eraser to remove the masking fluid and this works. However, if the mask is applied generously, it forms a nice rubbery surface that can be removed by applying pressure with your finger tip. In the image below, you see I am rolling it off easily.

Below, you see the white surface that was saved with the masking fluid.

Masking fluid leaves hard edges which sometimes need to be softened. The background martin gourds need soft edges to help them recede into the background. I used my small scrubber, clean water and a blotting tissue, to soften the edges of each gourd to make them look rounder and softer in the low morning light.

Once I lay in the background wash, I am ready to bring the bird to life with paint. This is my preferred way of painting--to work on the subject early in the painting. I want the color and values of the subject to lead my eye as I enrich the background with shading and detail. Below, you see the first glaze that I applied to the martin, discussed in the previous post.
Next: glazes of color and the finishing details.

Links and Resources:

To see all my posts on this purple martin painting project, visit: purple martins. The most recent post will be first. You may also enjoy my reports on my visits to the martin colony at Vickie Henderson Art.

Click the links to learn more about using masking fluid and softening edges.

To learn more about purple martins visit the Purple Martin Conservation Society

Purple Martins--Painting the Iridescent Sheen in Black

2011-07-23T08:02:00.004-04:00

Purple martins are full of personality. I can't tell you how many times I found myself giggling as I watched these birds interact. The more you get to know a bird through observation, the more invested you become in creating a good likeness of all that you've witnessed.

Besides the busy social interaction and high speed flight of these birds presenting challenges to an observing artist, the male purple martin is essentially black, making color another fun challenge. The translucence of watercolor and the iridescence found in many bird feathers are a perfect compliment. Purple martins are described in Peterson's field guide as blue-black. Their feathers often flash iridescent blue in the sun's light. Even when a bird is black, the reflection of color in light gives the artist many options for capturing the subject.

Glazing and under-painting are one way to do this and the methods I chose for this painting. The translucence of many watercolor pigments allow a color painted underneath to glow through. Above you see my experiments using Winsor Newton Permanent Rose, WN Quinacridone Gold, and a combination of the two to see how they appear through blue glazes--WN French Ultramarine, WN Cerulean and Daniel Smith Carbazole Violet. I selected French ultramarine (at the top of the page) because of its brilliance and clarity.

What I'm going for is not only the blue in the bird but the reflection of early morning color and softness as light reflects off the feathers. Above and below, you see how the under-painting, appears initially. Color is then added by glazing, applying a thin later of paint that allows the color underneath to come through. Each layer of paint is then allowed to dry before applying the next layer.

Now that I've shown you how I approached the bird's color, in the next post, I'll show you the finished painting and take you back to the beginning: creating the initial wash and background.

To see earlier posts on this purple martin painting project, visit: purple martins. The most recent post will be first.

More Purple Martin Studies

2011-07-19T08:50:00.000-04:00

Watching martins fly in and out of their colony, listening to their continuous vocals and becoming familiar with their social interactions were all part of the fun of getting to know this species. It wasn't that I had never seen a martin before, but that I knew little about them and had never had the opportunity to observe them in detail.

I also had a challenge, a request to paint a martin flying into the colony with a dragonfly in its mouth. I immediately wondered--how am I going to do that? Fast flying birds are not easy to photograph nor capture in a sketch, and capturing one with an insect in its mouth seemed unlikely.

Persistence paid off. I paid the colony a number of visits, captured more than I ever expected to with both my camera and my mind, and actually did capture a photo of a female martin flying in with a huge dragonfly. It wasn't that I needed to photograph the image I would create, but that I wanted to study the wing shapes and movements, and get a good feel for the martin's overall personality. These details and a real sense of the characteristics of the bird give me inspiration and add life to what I'm painting.

Next: The painting!

Links and Resources:
To see more about my preparation for painting martins visit: The Studies Before the Painting.
Great information about purple martins can be found at the Purple Martin Conservation Association website.

The Studies Before the Painting--Purple Martins

2011-07-06T10:24:00.002-04:00

Introduce me to a new bird that nests high above my head, whose primary behavior is feeding in flight, and ask me to paint this bird, and I've been handed a challenge. Purple Martins.

Fun birds! Below you see my initial scribbles as I watched the birds fly and perch during the nesting phase in April with the help of a friend's binoculars. I took lots of photos on that first visit, but capturing an image with useful information was a real challenge with these birds. Their nesting gourds are high over your head, anywhere from 10-20 feet and their flight patterns are high speed bursts--all part of getting to know the bird.

Purple martins are very busy birds, social and highly vocal, with lots of interaction among pairs as they nest in close proximity. In fact, all the activity looks like chaos initially, like they can't make up their minds where home is or who is their mate. And that is part of what is going on as they return to their breeding areas, the selection of mates and nesting sites within the colony. Watching all that confusion (largely mine) just made me want to get a book about purple martins and research them on the web to help me understand everything I was seeing. This is the real joy of painting nature, getting to know the species, being out with the birds, watching, listening, learning about their habits and behavior.

Purple martins are aerial insectivores, the largest member of the swallow family in North America, and spend their non-breeding season in Brazil. East of the Rocky Mountains, martins are totally dependent on human-supplied nesting cavities, the familiar multi-compartment houses and rows of gourd-shaped nest boxes positioned high on a pole. It was my good fortune to meet a purple martin landlord in my area and visit his colony of martins on a number of occasions during the nesting season to photograph, sketch and enjoy them while observing. I even resorted to climbing onto the roof of my vehicle to get a better look at their activities!

And somehow, all of this will become a painting, several paintings--my opportunity to re-enjoy all that I love about these birds with watercolor and paper.

Great information about purple martins can be found at the Purple Martin Conservation Association website.

Don't Throw Out the Kindergarten Efforts

2011-06-25T13:26:00.004-04:00

Kindergarten steps. That's how it feels when you're trying something new. But every time we step out of our comfort zone while sketching and painting, we learn.

I tried sketching this red day lily I found in the yard using watercolor, without drawing it first. I had in mind creating something loose and impressionistic. The problem was the breeze. A light wind is wonderful to keep insects away and for cooling comfort on a hot day. But, the down side, it dries the palette rapidly.

Always, always, I forget something when I sketch outside. And this time it was the spray bottle. Dropping water from the brush was too slow. It was drying faster than I could drop it. Trickling water from the water cup ended in a flood that had to be poured off--a comedy of errors good for exercising the sense of humor.

Add to that, too much water on the page, not enough water in my brush, and on and on it went. Then the breeze died down. Helpful? Not on your life! Something mean started biting. I never looked up to see what it was, so intent by that time, to get this day lily on the page!

When I looked at the sketch I completed while out doors (image above), I felt an "ugh" sensation in my stomach. Primitive, tight. I'd lost the lily petal shapes. But then I remembered some helpful guidance I received over years of working with watercolor instructor, Ann Lindsay. Whenever we showed our work in class, she would coach, "show us something you enjoyed, that you particularly like about your work, and if there's something you don't like and want to see happen differently next time, tell us about that, too."

So I scanned my sketch again. My eyes went to the bud, its shape and color, and it's loose leaves. Not bad, really, for no drawing in advance. I already knew my chief dislike, the shape of the petals. So I pulled out my pencil and outlined the petal shapes and edges. This came easily with a pencil. Once I had done that, the whole sketch began to feel different to me.

When I came inside, I lifted off paint, re-shaping the petals. And drew in the long, droopy day lily leaves on the left page's blob of color, defining them with negative painting. As I used my pencil to guide these changes and additions, I once again remembered how much I love to draw. Ah, I thought. Next time I'll sketch with my pencil first, and enjoy drawing even more!

This is a wise exercise--asking yourself to be specific about what you like and don't like about your painting or sketch. It helps keep you from throwing out the whole effort and walking away unnecessarily discouraged. New experiences are worth the effort, even when the results feel like kindergarten. It's not the finished results that matter the most, but what new information you add to your painting library--information about who you are, what you like, and what makes sketching and painting fun for you.

A postscript note to self: Reorganize outdoor sketch bag with its own spray bottle and insect repellent!

Links and references:

Ann K. Lindsay
Negative painting
painting en plein air

The Richness of Watercolor--It's Interaction

2011-06-17T15:52:00.009-04:00

11 x 14 watercolor, Monarch on White Crownbeard.

Watercolor is rich in it's versatility, in the many different ways you can approach a subject while attempting to capture the interplay of color and light. I suppose that is true with any medium, but watercolor moves as you paint and that quality gives it a richness and a freshness that is always full of surprises. I think it is this interaction, between the pigment and water, that always stirs in me the desire to explore it more. Each time I paint and see the results, I want to try again, see what other ways I can find to express what I'm seeing and feeling.

I painted this monarch primarily from a sketch in my sketchbook that you will recognize in the heading of this blog. While painting, I relied chiefly on the sketch rather than reference photos or having the subject in front of me. It is a different experience, a freeing experience. Sketches always feel lighter to me, free from the tension that painting a "real" painting sometimes causes. It is wonderful practice and a wonderful way to keep your painting fresh. There is a looseness in sketching that comes from the fact that you know it's practice, there's no pressure. You're uptight left brain goes to sleep, after all, you can easily start over again. And there is a practical limit to the amount of detail you can capture or even want in a sketch. In fact, the lack of detail is the magic of a sketch.

Having said that, I love detail. It is part of my fascination with nature and is one of the reasons I enjoy studying my subjects with my camera. The camera brings the subject closer, allowing me to slow down the activity so I can learn more about what's happening. And what I discover never fails to delight me. But a painting is more than just a rendition of the subject in its environment. A painting is also an interaction.

This interaction is one of the most intriguing and challenging aspects of watercolor. There are the primary interactions that we are all familiar with, between pigment and water, paint and brush, and of course, between the visual reality and what the artist sees and feels. But there is also the important interaction the viewer has while viewing the art. When the viewer sees the final work, we, as artists, hope they will be inspired.

For me, the delight and inspiration of watercolor is stirred by that mysterious quality in its movement. Using a photograph for reference, as I often do, can sometimes suck me into detail, which can result in a tight rendition rather than an image that is fluid. This is what I noticed as I worked on this painting. The sketch freed me to just paint, to focus on what I found to be beautiful about the subject, to stay with the light and airy quality of both the butterfly and the flowers, leaving the details more to the imagination.

It is this stimulation of imagination that is the root of inspiration. As creative beings, we love feeling this. And when my painting is finished, it is this inspiration that I want others to feel right along with me.

Links and Resources:

Paper: Winsor Newton (WN) 140# cold pressed. Pigments: WN Ultramarine Blue; WN Aureolin Yellow, WN New Gamboge, WN Burnt Sienna, and a touch of WN Sepia added to ultramarine blue and burnt sienna to create black.

To see images and read about my observation of this butterfly and the amazing story of its life and migration, visit: Of Monarchs and Milkweed at Vickie Henderson Art.

"Monarch and Crownbeard" art cards and prints are available for purchase in my website shop: Vickie Henderson Art

Clingman's Dome at Sunset

2011-04-04T22:08:00.004-04:00

I'm not sure whether I'll remember the beautiful sunset more vividly or the bone-chilling wind. We reached Clingman's Dome just in time to take in this gorgeous, multi-colored sky as the sun slipped down below the horizon.

Earlier, as we wound our way up the mountain watching for Ruffed Grouse, we also watched the thermostat plummet from 54 degrees F to 34 degrees. Add to that, the winds at Clingman's Dome overlook parking area were strong enough to lift you off your feet. That made for a very cold wind chill, somewhere in the 20's.

We were a group of six birders, with the goal of finding Ruffed Grouse and Saw-whet owls in the dusk hours. The Ruffed Grouse made a wonderful showing. We encountered four altogether, males with striking rust and white markings. One flew up to a low branch, showing his flared, rufous tail with solid dark terminal band.

The wind, however, guaranteed we would hear no owls. Its roar through the trees sounded like crashing waves. But the effort brought us in view of the night sky--spectacular, crystal clear and jam-packed with brilliant stars. Every bit of it worth all the shivering.

Creating a quick sketch like the one above just wet my appetite and made me want to practice making sunset skies, mountain ridge shapes, and using my rigger brush to capture the lop-sided fir limbs better. We'll see what time allows. The sketch is right there in my sketchbook waiting to inspire.

A Glimpse of a Wintering Visitor--Northern Harrier

2011-04-02T09:09:00.001-04:00

Northern Harriers are among my favorite raptors. They caught my attention many years ago when I lived in a rural area of east Tennessee with plenty of open fields dotting the landscape. Several Northern Harriers wintered-over in the area and provided me with daily opportunities to observe their behavior.

In the morning I would often see them as they flew out from their roost at early light. And in the evening, like clock-work, they would return for one last hunt before dusk. Harriers roost on the ground in grassy fields, so I suspected that the roost being used was either in our field or one adjacent to the property.

The Northern Harrier pictured above was seen at Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge during a March nature "Walk-about" sponsored by Ijams Nature Center and interpreted by Stephen Lyn Bales on March 19th. Like a wished-for celebrity, this female Northern Harrier made an appearance and glided gracefully over the grasses in search of prey.

Harriers winter over in Tennessee, arriving in the fall and departing sometime in early April for breeding grounds in the northern states and Canada. A slim hawk that glides and tilts low over the ground as it hunts, it is one of the few hawks that can hover in place while it hons in on its prey. Their wings are held in a dihedral position, slightly above horizontal, as they glide. It is this posture and flight pattern, as well as, its white rump patch, that make this hawk easy to distinguish from other raptor species.

Below, an earlier encounter with a Northern Harrier at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, WI, in 2009.

Links and References:
Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge and my article on Bird Banding at SIWR
Ijams Nature Center Walk-Abouts
Northern Harrier in Wisconsin

Wishing Upon Bluebirds

2011-03-21T22:37:00.003-04:00

I awoke to Eastern bluebirds singing before first light this morning. Wonderful sound. You can't hear them without smiling.

I think they have an established nesting territory across the street. But they come into both the front and back yard to visit berries, drink water, check out my nest box, and chatter and sing! I love it.

Later I happened to look out the window and saw the nesting phoebes chasing away a male bluebird. He landed on a limb that is the male phoebe's preferred perch while he guards the female's nest building activity. I hate that. I do wish we could all get along so the bluebirds could settle into the nest box that is near by.

Eastern phoebe female, above, holding nesting material as she pauses before rising to the gazebo shelf where she is building her nest for the second year in a row.

I'm still wishing.

More about bluebirds can be found in these blog posts at Vickie Henderson Art: Bluebirds and Wild Turkey and the Gentle Eastern Bluebird.

Brother's Plant--Part III

2011-03-05T18:24:00.001-05:00

This sketchbook spread started out as a field sketch practice, an attempt to sketch a subject that will be still, unlike the birds I enjoy painting. It gave me much more.

In addition to the memories that unfolded, it pulled me deeper into this prolific and hardy plant, its beauty, shape, shadows and color. I still wonder how it manages to withstand the cold winter. I learned that this has something to do with its ability to store water and a unique metabolic process that happens when the temperature drops. But in my brief research, I didn't learn enough to explain it to anyone.

I am often drawn to the visual detail of a subject, so much so, that it is sometimes hard for me to shift my focus out, allowing the loose sketch work its magic. I love this aspect of art, especially in watercolor. It is a challenge for me to hold on to this awareness as I paint.

When I added detail to the left group of flowers, I wasn't happy with the result. It pulled my eye away from what I found to be the most captivating part of the sketch, the top and right group of flowers that spilled over the side. The overall effect was "too busy".

So for this occasion, I pulled out my soft scrub brush and "erased" the added detail. I liked this area much better flowing loose with just a hint of shadow and shape.

Above you see the area after it's been scrubbed. And below, the same area with replacement color added. I couldn't recapture the freshness of what was there before, but I did restore some subtlety.

The final sketch gives me a lot of information for future reference. Below you see the original sketch created on the patio on the left, the final sketch on the right. See what you think.

Links and resources:
Wiki on Hen and Chicks

For more information about using a scrub brush visit: Sketching a Limpkin. For more about negative space visit: Search for a Swainson's Warbler. The first post on this sketchbook spread is: My Brother's Plant

Brother's Plant--Part II

2011-03-03T00:00:00.004-05:00

My unfinished sketch of the pot of hen-and-chicks is moving forward in interrupted increments, as in, whatever time I can grab before and after office hours.

I discover as I paint, what kind of mood I'm in. Sometimes I'm satisfied with a very loose and undefined result, other times I want to see more detail. Most often I like a combination. In this case, I was drawn to the rosette shapes of the flowers and the spilling over, the cascading of the rosettes as they multiply. So I printed a black and white copy of one of my photographs and sketched some rosettes in pencil on the sketch page to get a better feel for their layered petals.

Next, I wanted to reclaim some of the rim of my pot from the too-wet wash that spilled over the edge, as well as, the edge of the lower opening of the pot. Above you see the small size scrub I used. For more about this scrub brush and the process of scrubbing see the link at the end of the post. Below you see the result of lifting out some of the paint with the use of my scrub brush, water, and a tissue for blotting.

I created some loosely defined rosettes in the top of the pot with negative painting, that is, painting the space around the petal rather than the petal itself. This is fun. I believe negative painting and softening edges are two of my favorite approaches to painting.

Below, you see the page spread as it looks today--still unfinished, but becoming more of what I want to see on the page.

For more about using a scrub brush visit: Sketching a Limpkin. For more about negative space visit: Search for a Swainson's Warbler. The first post on this sketchbook spread is: My Brother's Plant

My Brother's Plant

2011-02-27T22:50:00.002-05:00

I believe the commonly used name is "Hen and Chicks", a rosette shaped succulent that reproduces miniatures of itself, looking like many off-spring. Though not native to North America, this is a hardy little plant.

We've had more days of sub-freezing temps this winter than I remember in a long time. As the weather has warmed, I set the pot of hen-and-chicks out in the garden so it could receive some of the rain we were expecting. On Thursday, a falling tree missed it by inches. I was stunned. With branches curling up all around it, it sat upright and unscathed. I brought it back to the shelter of the patio.

Early in the afternoon today, I took my journal outside and wrote:
"Gorgeous day. The sky is gray, full of moving clouds made invisible by the rain. Thunder keeps rumbling from the west and the light changes frequently, the sun breaking through a high layer. I couldn't be more content. I'm on the patio listening to rain falling down the gutter, pattering in the trees, titmice singing, a bluebird in the distance.... I'm comfortable in a double layer of long sleeves, no coat, no shivering. Three windows are open in the house and I have successfully made a home for my cedar chest treasure. It is a great relief to have it no longer the center piece in the living room [while I decided where to put it], to have an open floor again....Mother always called it the cedar chest. She gave it to my brother. My brother has now given it to me."

When I walked outside again later, I had the urge to sketch this plant. For one thing the outside air was so inviting. But I was also marveling at the plant's hardiness, thinking about my brother, feeling a wave of sadness wash over me, and noticing once again, the simple texture scratched into the clay, the loveliness of the piles of rosettes in their container. Suddenly, I realized why I had been feeling so sad. March has all but arrived. On March 3rd, it will be a year since my brother died.

The unconscious is an amazing creature. So many times it takes us where we need to go, whether we are paying attention or not. I had not considered the date that is approaching, nor that my grief might have a reason for intensifying. Nor had I considered why I was so drawn to this plant today. It lived on my brother's porch and invited me to bring it home. I am so happy I did.

After making a rough sketch, I wet the paper and added paint. Getting the paint juicy enough was a challenge since my small kit had not been used in a while. I didn't bring a spray bottle outside with me. It's a little slower to shake water from a paint brush into the pans, but it works just the same.

I used the sketch as a guide and continued to apply color, wet in wet. That is, adding color into color. What you see below is what I accomplished while still outside.

It is still unfinished, though I like the loose quality of it as it is. I would like to study some of my photo images of the rosettes, and sketch one in more detail. Then we'll see what happens next.

Wiki on Hen and Chicks

To see more patio sketching visit Seeing a Lantana.

Watercolor Painting--A Reflection of Life

2011-02-02T19:55:00.002-05:00

I've been approaching painting one-hour-at-a-time lately. This is not my favorite way to paint. I much prefer to dive in and lose my sense of time, enjoying the painting as it unfolds and remaining in that trance-like state for hours.

Of course, you can create the same effect in a smaller amount of time by making "smaller" decisions. What you do next is on a smaller scale, covers a smaller area, or simply consists of fewer strokes of paint. And there is an up side to painting this way. You have plenty of time to think about what you want to do next, loading your library of options so they'll be ready the next time you sit down to paint..

Besides time, there are a couple of other things that enter into this dance we call painting--mood and inspiration. My mood has waxed and waned tentative lately. It is easy for me to identify one reason. I have been actively participating in a conservation effort over the past few months, one that required many hours of research, writing and consideration--an effort underway to hunt the eastern population of sandhill cranes, a population that was nearly extirpation just 70 years ago. Conservation controversies are intense, full of conflict and, inevitably, cause us to dig deep into our inner resources. (See links below for more information on the sandhill crane issue.)

All of the above stimulates changes in mood, from concern to fear and hesitation, to anger, back to tentativeness, and finally to the boldness and determination that leads to decision and action. Now that's a bouncy ride for any person's mood. It is hard to paint with all that going on. But painting can add balance, a quiet introspection and reflection that can be very beneficial.

As the conservation issue was unfolding, the above sandhill crane image that I took in the waste grain corn fields of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico kept coming into my mind. A male crane was boldly displaying to another male, establishing his family's feeding territory. It's hard to imagine there are territories with so many cranes in the same field, but once they are established, these carefully claimed boundaries provide order while families feed together.

This behavior and this image gave me inspiration. It symbolized the attitude that I needed to go forward with conservation efforts. And partially because it contained that kind of meaning, I've approached it tentatively. I've said to myself many times, how are you going to do this? What are you going to say about that background? (The image has little variation in light and values.) How are you going to enhance the subject with these colors? And, as I have observed to myself many times while working on both the painting and the conservation issue, I don't know the answers. I just know I need to show up. One decision at a time, one hour at a time, I'll move forward and the painting will happen. So, also, the conservation.

Related Links:
About sandhill cranes and conservation: A New Plan for the Eastern Population of Sandhill Cranes and An Intimate View of Family Life.
Join the conservation effort. Visit the petition site and let USFWS know you want to see a New Management Plan for the Eastern Population of sandhill cranes.
More about the sandhill crane behavior seen in this image and painting: Are We Dancing Yet?
About painting--The Illusive Nature of Confidence and approaching "uncharted territory".

A Restaurant, An Endangered Blue Butterfly and a Life Bird

2010-12-04T09:33:00.004-05:00

The conversation went something like this, "Where do you want to go today?" It was my son's day off and we were in his home town, Los Angeles, CA. I had given it no thought, but my instant reaction was to check a local birding website to see what hot spots for birding were recommended. There, I read about a field trip that had taken place the day before at Rockweiler Beach where Snowy Plovers had been seen.

I asked my son if he knew where this beach was located. "Its under the LAX runway." I had to consider this. A beach under the runway?

The next thing I knew we were headed for El Segundo, a small community adjacent to LAX (Los Angeles International Airport). But first we stopped in a local coffee shop called the Blue Butterfly Coffee Company. We all like coffee! It was while visiting this shop that our butterfly discussion began. My son explained that the restaurant was named after the endangered El Segundo Blue butterfly.

El Segundo is both a community in Los Angeles, and the name of the coastal dunes that border the Santa Monica Bay. It is on these dunes that the native Seacliff Buckwheat grows, the host plant for the El Segundo Blue butterfly during every stage of its life-cycle.

When very astute observers discovered that this butterfly was disappearing, it became one of the first species to be listed as endangered in the 70's. The reason for it's decline? It is a specialist species that relies solely on one plant throughout its entire life cycle. And that one plant was disappearing, crowded out by an exotic ice plant species. The butterfly itself only appears from late June to July, nectars on the Seacliff Buckwheat, and mates and lays its eggs on the plant's blossoms. Its larvae feed on the flowers, burrow at the base of the plant to form pupae, and re-emerge as butterflies the next season to start the cycle all over again.

Our next stop was nearby Rockweiller Beach and it actually is located in the flight path of airplanes coming and going on the LAX runway system, flying low over your head as you walk the beach.

The shorebirds don't seem to mind and neither did I once I spotted them. Marbled Godwits, a life bird for me, and Willets were foraging in the tide. The godwits were probing in the wet sand, the willets chasing the ebbing tide and running back to higher ground ahead of the next wave to eat their prize, sand fleas. I couldn't have asked for a better wildlife morning.

Marbled Godwit

To learn more about the amazing El Segundo Blue Butterfly, visit: El Segundo Blue Butterfly--A Story of Survival at Vickie Henderson Art. There you'll find two video clips that describe this butterfly's fascinating survival story, as well as, its unique relationship with other species. For more sketches about my California visit, click here.

For birding information in the LA area, visit the Los Angeles Audubon website

And for artists interested in the sketchbook used, the above sketches are created in a Moleskin sketchbook with pencil, ink and watercolor. The paper is designated for all-media but does not work well with watercolor because of its delicate nature and a surface that tends to cause beading. Even though the result can be satisfactory, the process of working on the paper is not enjoyable for me. The fun of watercolor is its movement and fun is one of my requirements for sketching! However, the book has a smooth surface that works well with ink, graphite, color pencils, etc. and of course journaling.

Long-billed Curlew at El Matador Beach--Malibu, CA

2010-11-22T23:09:00.004-05:00

Located on the west end of Malibu, El Matador is one of three beaches located in the Robert H. Meyer Memorial State Beach, an area of cove or cliff-foot strands, also known as "pocket beaches" because of their isolated accessibility.

To reach this beautiful view, I had to navigate a series of dirt paths and stairways that zigzagged down the cliff face until eventually, if you desire, you arrive at beach level. I stopped two levels short of the shore because I didn't want to flush the shore birds I spotted foraging among the rocks. The one that attracted my attention the most, was colorful and tall, with a very long bill--a new bird for me.

It's funny. Even though I had never seen one before, "curlew" immediately came to mind. As we browse through blog posts and bird books, our mind obviously absorbs more than we realize. The names and shapes of other birds we encounter along the way get stored in the "library" too, whether we're paying attention or not!

This sketch was created in a Moleskin sketchbook. Described as heavy Italian stock pages for "fountain pen, charcoal, tempera, acrylic, etc", it contains paper unlike any I've used before. And this was the first time I've tried painting on it. New paper, especially non-watercolor paper, is just about as challenging as trying an entirely new medium. In this case, you basically have to use less water and keep the paper dryer. Though I have other sketchbooks, I wanted to try this one to see how I liked it for field sketching. I've seen it among the supplies of other artists. The verdict's still out for me. I have to practice with it more to give it a fair chance. This book is for sketching, after all, not painting.

Moleskin Sketchbook, 5" x 8 1/4 at Cheap Joe's
To see more images of beautiful El Matador Beach visit my Long-billed Curlew post at Vickie Henderson Art.

Bird Banding Sketches--Savannah Sparrow

2010-11-19T22:58:00.005-05:00

This is the time of year when sparrows move south and settle into wintering territories, Tennessee among them. The Savannah Sparrow is one of those beautiful birds, often blending right into the pale dried grasses in its habitat and appearing "brown" at first glance.

But when you see sparrows up-close at the banding table or even with good binoculars or camera, you find that instead of being non-impressive gray or brown, their back and wing feathers are exquisitely beautiful with contrasting patterns of black, white, cream, brown and rust.

The sketchbook page above is one that I created in preparation for my bird banding article published in Nov/Dec issues of the TN Conservationist magazine. This month I also created an article on sparrows published on the Knoxville's Wild Birds Unlimited website. Visit the article to see the beautiful wing colors in the overall grayish Swamp Sparrow and the exquisite maroon-like reds in the Fox Sparrow.

All of these birds were new to me last fall. All of them are now imprinted in my mind through close-up views, photography and sketching. Sweet, sweet sparrows!

Links:

Wild Birds Unlimited--Arrival of Wintering Birds

TN Conservationist--Tracking the Birds of Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge and Bird Banding sketching

TN Conservationist Magazine

More on my experiences with bird banding, truly a matter of the heart

TN Conservationist Magazine, Bird Banding and Sketching!

2010-11-13T09:33:00.000-05:00

The November/December issue of Tennessee Conservationist magazine features my article on bird banding, and I must say, it is a thrill to have my research, writing, photographs and art all featured in one place in one publication! And the bonus of this project--the subject is birds and conservation, a subject dear to my heart.

The article, entitled Tracking the Birds of Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge, focuses on the bird banding activities of the refuge, a 360-acre preserve bordering the French Broad River, that is jointly managed and operated by the Seven Islands Foundation, a non-profit land conservancy, and the Knox County Department of Parks and Recreation. And what's unique about this refuge? Its primary habitat is grassland that is being reclaimed from agricultural plantings of non-native fescue and restored to native warm-season grasses that support grassland bird populations.

The article represents more than a year of research and collaboration with the bird banding team, and my own participation in bird-banding, which has been a joy unto its self. Sketches, like the one you see above, and photographs taken represent incredibly intimate moments with birds, allowing me to see their detailed beauty and enjoy their personalities in a very special way. Add to that, the wonderful friends I've made during the year's activities, and you have a very satisfying experience!

To take a peek at the published article visit Tracking the Birds of Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge at Vickie Henderson Art. And to find out more about this award-winning magazine and how to obtain a copy, visit the Tennessee Conservationist.

Painting a Loggerhead Sea Turtle--Part II

2010-10-24T22:52:00.006-04:00

A fun painting to create, but also one that offered some challenges. For one thing, I didn't know I would be away from it for an entire month and failed to write down the pigments I had initially chosen. The second was my unfamiliarity with creating sea foam on the beach--uncharted territory.

The pigment challenge I resolved fairly quickly, glancing over my palette and selecting my likely choices (listed at the end of post). The beach foam was a journey of trial and error, an exploration into suggestion, knowing that I had my scrub brush and gouache to back me up. I did not create a separate sketch which would have been a good exploration alternative. Sometimes I like to just jump in and move through confusion until what I want to see begins to emerge.

A first attempt at creating the sand beneath the sea foam

Life seems to be like this sometimes, new experiences push us to reach beyond what we know. In the process we learn something new, often with gratifying results. And its not always that the outcome is beautiful, its that we did it despite uncertainty. I tackle many things this way, but I also turn to books for suggestions and practice. Not only did I order a seascapes art book, prompted by this painting (that hasn't arrived yet), but I also bought Blair Witherington's gorgeous book, Sea Turtles, An Extraordinary Natural History of Some Uncommon Turtles. Unfortunately, this book is out of print, but can be found on the secondary market (with patience) at affordable prices and in my case, brand new condition.

While I described researching new anatomy terminology in Part I of this painting series, Blair's book brought me the beauty, heart and elegance of this mysterious creature, a species that has its roots in the Cretaceous period, 110 to 65 million years ago. True ancients.

Above I've turned to my scrub to smooth out the hard edges and reduce the clutter in the sand. The turtle is where I want the eye to go and since I want to enhance her detail, I want the sea and sand to stay smooth and suggestive rather than detailed and distracting.

In the two images immediately above, you see the results of me thinking about and playing around with the beach and foam. I'm moving back and forth between the turtle's shell and the beach, both requiring a bit of thinking and building. The turtle's back is partially covered with sand, slung by her flippers as she covered her egg chamber. By moving back and forth, from one area to the other, I relieve my tension while I'm working on an area of uncertainty. But it also has a painterly purpose. It allows me to keep an eye on the unity of colors as I watch the emphasis on the subject change with each color application to the background.

Above, I've added more detail to the turtle's back and sandy areas in the sea. I laid an initial variegated wash of gray using a mixture of ultramarine and burnt sienna to form the background of sand above the turtle. As I added more details to the turtles body, I realized her golden and rust features would be better enhanced with a bluer shade of gray. Below, after the area was completely dry, I used a large flat brush to glaze over the top of the painting with a light application of a bluer shade of gray. To my pleasure, this had the dual affect of enhancing the turtle's shell and popping out the area of light yellow that brings the eye to the center of interest, her face.

To complete the painting, I softened some of the edges of the foam with my scrub brush, used a little white gouache to lighten foamy areas, enriched the appearance of sand on her back with paint splatter using a toothbrush, and darkened shadow details.

And some of the new fun things I learned about sea turtles, sparked by the curiosity that painting this one stirred? Each species of sea turtle, seven altogether, has a characteristic number of large scutes (shell plates) on their hard carapace (shell), as well as a characteristic arrangement of scales on their head. They have more flexible shells than land turtles, with the carapace and plastron (under shell) being joined by a bridge of supple cartilage, allowing for more speed and maneuverability as they navigate through many miles at sea.

Watercolor on 9 x 12" Arches 140# cold pressed paper. Pigments used: WN French Ultramarine, WN New Gamboge (yellow), WN Van Dyke Brown, WN Burnt Sienna, a touch of DVP Permanent Rose as needed, and WN Permanent White Gouache. Most of my grays are a mix of ultramarine and burnt sienna.

Links:
Painting a Loggerhead Sea Turtle--Part I
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and Sea Turtles
For the story of my June visit to Brevard County, FL, to see nesting sea turtles, visit The Loggerhead Sea Turtle at Vickie Henderson Art and Space Coast Beach Buzz with Marge Bell.
To learn more about sea turtle nesting on the coast of Florida visit Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge.
Blair Witherington's book, Sea Turtles, An Extraordinary Natural History of Some Uncommon Turtles.

Sketching Birds in the Backyard

2010-10-18T22:06:00.003-04:00

Sounds easy enough. But there is definitely a shift between photographing birds and sketching them. And another gigantic shift between sketching from a photo and trying to capture birds while they're moving around! So what you see below is today's attempt. My solution for everything that doesn't come easily....practice!

Whey all my busy hummingbird activity ended earlier in the month (last observed visit October 11th), I took all but one hummingbird feeder down, hung a suet basket with homemade suet, a sunflower seed feeder and put out a plate with a mix of each. The bird-y word got around fast.

It is such a joy to watch these birds--cardinals, mockingbirds, chickadees, titmice, wrens, downies, nuthatches--at the bath and the feeder. If you sit and observe for a while, you can tell which are the juveniles by their behavior, especially at the bird bath. I had the joy of watching young chickadees trying to figure out how to drink without getting wet.

My bird bath sits crooked. No matter how many times I straighten it and pile rocks around it, it always shifts. On this occasion a cardinal was perched drinking and two chickadee juveniles, one after the other, ended up in a spot where the water had shifted away from the edge. It was a chuckle to see them stretch, nearly tip over, and flutter to upright themselves and keep from falling into the water. They next landed on the opposite side to drink. I mean, you bathe only when you want to, right?

And I got this special mockingbird treat during another time I sat on the patio to observe. What a hoot, to watch this mocker grab the back ball shaped tops that hold the feeder together. At first I thought he/she was after an insect. But then when he tried more than one angle, and moved on to try each one, I realized it was a juvenile trying to see if that big, fat, black, berry-looking thing was tasty!

My response to that stare, "I promise, I didn't do it!"

My Loggerhead painting was interrupted by my three-day exhibit at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park the last weekend of September. I'll get back to the painting soon and share what I've learned about this special species.

Painting a Loggerhead Sea Turtle

2010-09-21T22:28:00.000-04:00

It's often that while painting a subject that my mind wanders through the moments of first encounter. In the case of this unfinished Loggerhead watercolor, I also couldn't help but wonder about the details of what I was sketching, specifically, the scales on the turtles' head, how they were arranged, what they were made of, whether they varied or were uniformly arranged in a species.

My search led me to a familiar realization that I don't know a whole lot about some things, turtles being among them, especially sea turtles. It was humbling to land on the US Fish and Wildlife/North Florida Ecological Service "Sea Turtle Quick Facts" page (link provided below) and begin reading the description of Loggerheads. I understood the first sentence. But in the next, I encountered carapace and plastron and as I read on, costal scutes, nuchal scute, inframarginal scutes and bridges. I needed a turtle dictionary!

Sketching and painting heightens my senses and deepens my curiosity, making me eager to learn more. I'll share my recent experience with Loggerhead sea turtles at Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge in Brevard County, Florida, in an upcoming post. But for now, get ready by brushing up on your memory of turtle anatomy and the language used to describe it.

Reference links:

Sea Turtle Quick Facts, US Fish & Wildlife and North Florida Ecological Services
Introduction to Marine Turtles at Marine Science, an educational site created by a family of marine biologists
Sea Turtle Identification Key, a great two-page pdf with identifying characteristics and comparison of sea turtle species

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and Sea Turtles

2010-09-05T09:41:00.003-04:00

It has been such a joy to watch the hummingbirds that have come to my feeders this summer. Those that live in northern breeding territories in Canada and the northern USA began their migration journey's in July, progressing southward approximately 18 miles per day. In the southeastern USA where I live, in Tennessee, our birds have begun migration as well, the males departing earliest, leaving females with late fledglings and vigilant juveniles guarding nectar sources.

All this activity has been an incredible thing to watch. The more time I spend sitting near the feeders, the more I understand the necessity of all that chirping and diving and chasing that takes place. In a few hours of observation, I may see a male define his territory with an incredible high-speed dive, a tentative fledgling at the feeder with his 'baby' gape still apparent, and two juveniles sparing in spiraling flight so ferociously that they both land on the ground. The juxtaposition of so many aspects of their lives unfolding in front of me gives me deep pause.

And while I sketch these juveniles, internalizing every feather, the shape of their beaks, the position of their wings, their expression, I feel more and more connected to them, more and more hopeful that they will each survive their migration journey. My art inspires my love for what I'm painting, just as surely as the nature I encounter inspires my art.

I experimented with salt in this painting, sprinkling a little too much, in my opinion, in a couple of places to suggest the sparkling of light in the trees. While I waited for the paint to dry, I sketched a loggerhead sea turtle. This was my first sketch of a turtle of any kind. And as my pencil gave it shape, I fell in love with it all over again, bringing it even deeper into my heart, if that's possible.

Standing on a dark beach in the light of a full moon with the sound of the surf breaking while watching a sea turtle lay her eggs was quite enough to fortify my love for these giant marvels forever. And while I'm sketching, I internalize what I know about them even more, see more deeply, and feel more deeply. Painting is a meditation of sorts, and during that meditation I am one with this turtle, enjoying her beauty, the shape of her head, the sheer size of her body, those deep ancient eyes. Every aspect of what I see and feel about her moves through me and forms the image I create on paper.

And when I paint hummingbirds, I'm one with their high-speed world, filled with a fledgling's uncertainty and mindful of the power and speed of that mature male. I marvel at what they show me and how nature has put it all together. Art and nature, nature and art. They make my world a richer place.

Visit Ruby-throated Hummingbird Migration and Delightful Fledglings to see more images and stories of the hummingbirds in my life. And more about sea turtles and sketching coming up.

Hummingbird and Downy Woodpecker on Nectar Feeder

2010-08-15T17:34:00.007-04:00

If you love nature and you love to recreate what you see and experience in watercolor, there couldn't be anything more fun than diving back into a subject and watching it come to life in a painting. When it comes to birds, that could also mean tripling and quadrupling your fun!

It has been fun on top of fun to hear and witness this male Downy woodpecker visiting my nectar feeders intended for tiny hummingbirds. But top it off with interactions between the two species and smiles just keep coming.

Painting this sketch had the same effect. I smiled a lot. And when you're smiling there is no worry about outcome. You're just loving your subject and loving the opportunity to give it center stage. And there's a number of ways to create that stage, among them, painting light against dark, soft against hard, and color that leads the eye through the painting. I often approach these elements intuitively

I chose my background colors in this sketch first, focusing on the greens of the trees and the light in the spaces in the unfocused background. A principle I learned from my long-time watercolor mentor and instructor, Ann K Lindsay--the fewer colors you use, the more unified your painting. I've found this to be excellent advise that stuck with me and greatly simplifies decisions!

In this sketch my primary colors are DVP Cobalt Blue , WN Quinacridone Gold for my yellow, and DVP Permanent Rose for my red. (Note: brands with the same color name vary in actual color. WN stands for Winsor & Newton brand paint, DVP for Da Vinci). The rest of my colors consisted of two neutrals and sap green, all used to alter the shades of the above three primaries: DVP Sap Green, to add a little warmth to green made with the gold and blue; WN Van Dyke Brown, used with cobalt to make black; WN Burnt Sienna used with rose to warm it. I also use burnt sienna with blue to make grays, adding a touch of the other colors on the palette as needed.

As I'm working on the light washes, I'm making a map of sorts. I'm aware that my hummer and the water in the feeder will both be the same colors as the background. This means I have to draw the viewers eye to my subject with the placement of values, that is, the positioning of darks and lights. At this point (above), I also add color to the nectar container which reflects the background, and to the water in the feeder as a reference for these values. The water and the feeder represent my lightest lights.

The hummer is next, creating wings that have a fairy-like movement of 40 to 80 beats per second.

To soften edges on the hummer's wing, I laid down paint strokes, rinsed my brush, blotting excess water from the brush with a sponge or paper towel, then brushed along the edge of the paint. The paint edge is softened by the moisture from the brush. The amount of water you leave in the brush controls how far the pigment will spread from the original line.

One way to suggest hummer wing movement is illustrated below--a combination of disconnected shapes, blurs, a mix of hard and softened lines.

Below is the almost finished sketch, created in one of my favorite sketchbooks made by Aquabee, on 11 x 14 paper. What made me realize it wasn't quite finished was a glimpse at an LCD image on my camera that highlighted the widely separated gold areas.

The yellow in this sketch is like an accessory with a special function. It either helps move the eye through the painting or it distracts, especially since there is no yellow in my two stars. So, I added yellow to areas where 'my eye wanted to see yellow', moving left to right from one side of the painting to the other, dabs of yellow glaze leading through the two birds.

You may already know how this dictate-from-the-eyes feels. It's a sensation that is visually uncomfortable, that is, it bothers until the correction is made. And when it's right, you know it--your eyes are happy again. See what you think by comparing the finished sketch below to the one above.

In bird-watching, the intuitive ability to identify a bird by its shape and movement is referred to as 'jizz'. It's a wholistic and instant recognition. It's learned. Painting works the same way. Besides helping you learn the skills of manipulating water and pigment on paper, practice develops jizz, your eye's intuitive ability to know what your painting needs in order to please you.

To see more of my hummingbird sketches visit Ruby-throated hummingbirds and my Art Cards and Prints Page. Scroll down to the Hummingbird Collection.

Other links you may find helpful:
Ann K Lindsay's website
A source and more details about Aquabee Sketch books

The Curious Wood Stork

2010-08-06T20:45:00.002-04:00

Below you see a Wood Stork I sketched nine years ago. In fact, this was both the first time I attempted to record my travel experience in a sketchbook and my first sightings of Wood Storks. I had to get out my field guide to be certain of the species. I also didn't have my digital camera back then for reference images, so the sketch was created from my field guide and my memory, giving it a whimsical quality.

Sketchbooks are tons of fun, both creating them and looking back on them. They reflect the mood of the moment as much as the subject. Below is another Wood Stork sketch created this year. In this encounter, I had the fun surprise of seeing this bird standing close-up, near the road. When you are observing from a car, birds and animals are often undisturbed and may stay around allowing amazing looks.

My impression of this endangered bird--a bird draped in chiffon-like plumage topped off with a head full of wrinkles and scales. What a combination. When I looked at my photo images later, all I could think about was the fun I would have sketching him! And while I was sketching all those scales and wrinkles on his head, I wondered more and more what this characteristic was all about.

To create this sketch, I experimented with masking fluid to save the feathery edges of the plumage and used a disposable skewer to make the lines. This avoids soaping a brush to prevent the bristles from sticking together and also solves some of the challenge of making fine lines. But even with a sharp tipped skewer, the fineness of the line takes some practice. After dipping the stick in the fluid, droplets form on the tip. What worked for me was to place the drop of fluid in a large area and drag a finer line of liquid to the edge of the feather.

Since rubbery masking fluids deteriorate with exposure to air and lose their effectiveness over time, I've poured some into an old film canister, to lessen exposure to the original bottle, and labeled it with the type of mask and date. Have you ever picked up a bottle of mask and wondered how old it is? At least on this bottle, there was no date anywhere. Masks are said to have an effective life of approximately one year after they're opened.

This sketch also reinforced the practice of walking away from the table for a while, sometimes overnight, to discover what fresh eyes will see. In this case I noticed that the placement of the eye didn't look right. A closer look and I realized the problem was the height of the crown.

A light scrub and a new crown line and the problem was solved.

To see photo images of this bird and read more about why his head is scaled instead of feathered, visit my Wood Stork post at Vickie Henderson Art.
And to see the rest of the sketch pages made along with the top image in my first travel sketchbook, visit Our Amazing Wetlands.

Sketching a Limpkin in Water

2010-07-21T23:11:00.001-04:00

More time please! A thousand images to paint and so little time. I could go out in nature every day for the rest of my life and never get enough of it. And then there's the time needed for painting. I have enough inspiration right now to keep me busy for months.

I began this sketch by applying liquid resist to save the reeds and edges of the bird while I added a wash of blue.

The wash ended up lighter than I wanted, reminding me to make a bigger, juicier puddle of paint next time. On the other hand, smooth water reflects light and light areas are part of what we see when we look out on water. When the paint dried, I removed the resist.

Below, I added color to the face and bill.

When I stepped back from the sketch, I didn't like the brown I had mixed, too dark. So I dried the paint thoroughly and using a scrub brush, lightened the brown areas. I then changed the paint mix to a lighter shade of brown, a slightly different mixture of Cobalt blue and Burnt Sienna, with a touch of Van Dyke Brown.

At this point, I shifted focus and spent sometime creating the shading around the larger body feathers. I applied paint first, then softening the edges. It's one of those details I enjoy. It was while working on this less stressful area (meaning I've practiced it more), that I noticed the shadow. I had completely lost the slender shadow of the head and neck. Checking to be sure the paint was completely dry before starting, I scrubbed out the right side of the shadow (above).

Above you see my two most used scrubbers. The one on the left is about 3/8 in wide and soft, for light scrubbing in larger areas. The one on the right is made of stiff bristles and works well for tight areas. The word scrub is a misnomer, really, because the idea is not to scrub the paper, but to lift off the paint. You want to preserve the paper's surface as much as possible while removing pigment. The operative word is "lift". Apply clean water with the scrubber, brush a few strokes with a lifting motion, then blot with tissue or paper towel. The brush stroke loosens the paint; the blotting lifts it off the paper.

I added detail to the reeds, corrected the body shadow shape (see top image), and added detail to the rest of the feathers. To finish, I brightened white areas on the plumage by adding some white gouache.

9 x 12 watercolor on Arches 140# paper.

To see another sketch of this bird visit Sketching A Limpkin
For photo images of this bird and the story of its specialist lifestyle visit The Delightful Limpkin and Delightful Limpkin II at Vickie Henderson Art.

A Florida Scrub Jay and the Illusive Nature of Confidence

2010-07-10T14:42:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I wonder where my confidence goes. It's as though it has a mind of its own. One minute its around to help me move forward, in the next it has vanished and can't be found. Instead I hear a doubting voice.

Natalie Goldberg, author and writing teacher, calls this thinking "monkey mind", a mindless chatter with endless ways of thwarting our efforts. For me, it is likely to show up when I'm trying something new, when I'm tired, feeling pressured, or when I set out to do something that I haven't practiced for a while.

Fear is the culprit, of course. And the dialog goes something like, "whatever possessed you to think you could do this?" It's a critical voice, a fearful voice, and it ultimately warns, don't take this risk, stay in safe territory. It's also the anxiety that builds while you're still in the void, while you're facing the blank paper. The inspiration to create requires that you step outside your comfort zone, that you put yourself out there and move forward despite uncertainty.

Confidence requires action. When I begin a painting, I have some idea of what I want to see happen, but it is not until I start the journey that I can see the path more clearly. Each decision forms the basis for the next, until the painting begins to reveal itself. Sometime during the process, anxiety fades, time disappears and I notice that I'm smiling.

It's one of the delights of watercolor, a medium that is fresh, alive, full of movement and surprises. I have some control, some idea of what to do, but I won't know the whole of it until the painting is finished. A bit like life, isn't it? And despite the anxiety generated, mystery is key to the dance. When the music starts, when the watercolor moves, you soon forget those nagging doubts and just dance.

As I worked on this painting, I had some concern that my values were going to be too similar throughout and that I might not be able to remedy this. So I turned my focus to my subject, painting in the detail so I could see the relative lights and darks more clearly. Two things happened. Foremost, I fell in love with the bird again and that gave my confidence a boost. Secondly, once the color values in the bird were established, the foliage values began to fall into place.

9 x 12" Watercolor on 140# Arches cold press paper

Links:
To see more about the delightful personality of this bird, visit: Florida Scrub Jays--A Specialist Species
And for more about values, visit Inauguration Chickadee

Seeing a Lantana

2010-06-20T15:05:00.000-04:00

Seeing is a big word when it comes to making art. In fact, seeing is everything.

Seeing your subject, the shapes, the detail, focusing in and capturing what makes it of interest to you in the first place. And simplifying, focusing out to capture the essence, the larger shapes and values, without becoming distracted by detail. Both are necessary, a balance that only practice and preference can achieve.

Sketching outdoors is relatively new to me. I'm more prone to snapping reference photos and painting later through this record and my experience. But I've seen beautiful work done on the spot. So I keep giving it a try to see what happens. Because I'm embarking on an exploration and only looking for what new I can discover, I'm finding myself delightfully free of expectations.

I've recently done some practicing on my patio, making a retreat to the cooler in-doors easy when I've had enough of the heat and mosquitoes. My main goal has been practicing the focus required, learning to filter out distractions and decide just how I want to capture the subject. Below, you see the end result of my first try to capture my patio pot of Lantanas.

The top photo shows what I completed on the spot. I sketched without an eraser on this occasion, leaving all the pencil marks, mistakes and otherwise. Not generally my style. But I found this okay, even relaxing. The image above is the finished sketch after I added ink and more color. This is one way to sketch a pot of Lantanas. But Lantanas are light, airy. So this sketch motivated me to try again, see if I could capture more of that lightness in the next sketch.

I created the pencil sketch first, and then began to add color, loose spots of yellow in the area of the blossoms.

Above you see the sketch I finished outside and my working space below.

When I brought the sketch inside, I played with the values, making some areas darker to allow the blossoms to come forward and giving the leaves some variation. This was nice. I liked what was happening on the right side of the page.
Above you see the final result, a sketch that expresses something different about what I see in those flowers, a brightness that the first sketch doesn't quite capture. It's interesting, though, I like both sketches. But don't they have a very different feel?

Links:
Lantana

Delights of Spring

2010-05-30T16:58:00.000-04:00

I put up a nest box near my patio this year and a pair of Carolina Chickadees settled in. I was delighted to find six hatched young when I checked the box on May 3rd after being away for a week at the New River Birding and Nature festival in West Virginia.

They were amazingly tiny, piled on top of each other, naked and pink. But boy, did they change rapidly.

I was lucky enough to be home sixteen days later when they each took their first flight. This was a surprise. No fluttering stops and starts on the wing. After a brief hesitation at the box opening, they just one-by-one took flight, zipping up to an oak's mid-canopy to waiting parents who rewarded with snacks.

Landing, on the other hand, was a different matter. One fledgling grabbed a thatch of twigs for his landing and ended up upside down. He looked down and around, as if to say, oops Mom, what now?

Sketch: watercolor, ink and gouache on 9x6 pastel tonal paper.

The Fun of Painting a Red-winged Blackbird

2010-05-24T23:20:00.001-04:00

I think it was the bright neutral reeds that enticed me to paint this blackbird. The contrasts were brilliant in the early morning light.

Or maybe it was the fun of watching the males display their bright shoulder patches, singing and ruffling their feathers while searching in the shadows to see if the females were impressed. Even the arrival of a bus load of bird-lovers from WV's New River Birding and Nature Festival did not disturb their early morning nuptial festivities. This is what I love about bird watching, the moments that bring a bird to life, that give you a glimpse of personality and how they go about their day. Forever, this is not "just another blackbird" but an impressive Red-winged Blackbird.

I can't explain why I decided to use a light pumpkin, 75# pastel tonal paper for this painting, except that I initially considered using gouache to highlight the reeds. As it was, the reeds became incidental as the painting progressed. Instead, I was more attracted to the possibilities of morning light and jumped right into playing with the background, the impressionistic splash and disarray that grasses naturally create. (The pale pumpkin paper actually has a rosy glow, now that I think about it.)

This is what makes watercolor fun for me, the surprises and movement, its abstract qualities. It lends itself so well to intuitive thinking, a kind of spontaneity that gets stronger as you become more familiar with the medium.

I don't want to control the paint as I work. I want to play with it, move with it and enjoy what happens, all the while keeping in mind that I want to also showcase my subject. Even with the playful start in this painting, I limited my palette. The fewer colors, the more unified and brilliant the painting. I chose Winsor Newton's Cobalt blue, WN Quinacridone gold and Daniel Smith's Carmine Red for my primary colors and added WN Burnt Sienna for brown. All other colors you see are mixes of these four colors.

I painted the bird in layers, not sure just how to handle the black, working it through as I went along. I wanted to see some shading and color, not just a mass of black. My reference photo was printed in black and white on my laser printer which offers very little detail. The practical reason for this--I'm out of one of my color ink cartridges. Artistically, however, this turned out to be of benefit. It gave me the freedom to create the background colors from my imagination and memory.

As I began to add shading to the foreground reeds below, I noticed that I had lost the forward edge of the front wing (see above). Below, I have scrubbed that edge so I can restore it with another application of paint.

As I added shading to the foreground reeds, you can see what begins to happen above. With the exception of the bird, the values are now mostly mid-tones with little variation. To solve this problem, I added a darker mix of green and gray around some of the reeds to add a depth. This darker shade also leads the eye around the bird.

9 x 12" Watercolor on 75# toned Pastel paper.

Click here to learn more about my visit to WV's New River Birding and Nature Festival.

The Search for a Swainson's Warbler

2010-05-12T09:18:00.000-04:00

In the case of this sketch, it was the search for the right colors to bring out this beautiful bird's subtleness on paper.

The Swainson's Warbler is a shy and secretive bird that hangs out in the shadows of thick stands of rhododendrons. That is one of the reasons this bird has the reputation of being seldom seen even when its song is heard. Its neutral colors simply disappear into the shadows.

On this occasion, with a group of birders and terrific guides at the New River Birding and Nature Festival, the odds of seeing this bird were better. It landed on a rhododendron branch right in front of us. Even then it took alert eyes to find him. What a thrill to get such intimate looks as he perched quietly. I love these subtle colors, the way his posture, this moment, says so much about his personality and his habitat.

It is always a challenge for me to go small in a sketch, so instead of focusing on the detail I love, I used this opportunity to play with color and values so that the negative space would make the neutrals in the bird stand out.

The foreground leaves are created with a mixture of DVP Cad Yellow Light and WN ultramarine; the shrub limbs, with burnt sienna, ultramarine and a touch of Van Dyke brown here and there. Above I tried a darker green mixture in the negative space. Too blue. Below, I added some Van Dyke brown to see what happened.

Still too blue. It was here that I decided to add more color to the bird to help guide me. I initially painted him with a mixture of burnt sienna and Van Dyke brown. The overall affect is more reddish than desired but it gave me a place to begin. It also enabled me to see the disconnect between background and subject at this phase. There was no unifying color. This is not only not pleasing to the eye, it isn't what we see in nature. And it especially isn't true for this secretive little bird who frequently can't be seen at all.

So I warmed the background by adding WN New Gamboge to ultramarine and added some burnt sienna in spots. Next, I smoothed and shaped the bird's head using my scrub brush and more paint, added some shadows, and painted a light glaze of ultramarine over the wing and back to subdue the brightness of the burnt sienna.

All of this playing around made me smile about this bird once again. I thought he was wonderful when I saw him the first time. Creating the sketch just made me want to paint him even more!

Watercolor on 90# cold press sketchbook paper. Colors used: WN Ultramarine, WN Burnt Sienna, DVP Cad Yellow Light, WN New Gamboge, Van Dyke Brown.

To see my posts on the New River Birding and Nature Festival at Vickie Henderson Art, click here.

The Hardest Thing About Sketching is Time

2010-05-08T08:43:00.000-04:00

I've just returned from a fun and exhilarating nature festival at the New River Gorge in West Virginia--the New River Birding and Nature Festival. This is a beautiful place and this time of year, it's a place alive with migration and beautiful wood warblers settling into their nesting territories on mountain ridges.

Time was at a premium while there. Briefly described, my mornings began at five a.m. and if I had two hours for rest in the afternoon, I was lucky. When the day was done, you were ready to fall into bed and the next morning, you were up and on your way to your next adventure.

When you participate in a festival of this sort, you learn so much, your eyes are opened wider, your senses are keenly alert. Birding is about habitat, about song and about finding the bird, whether with your naked eyes, binoculars or a scope. You're with experts that can help you do this and I for one, wanted to take advantage of every minute of it.

And this is also a time for learning a lot about yourself, your personality type, your comfort zone. I'm a turtle! That best describes it. I want to soak it all in slowly. I understood after a day or more of rest, why my mind was in such a fog when I returned home. Thank heavens for notes, photographs and my handy reference books on my shelf. Because, I want to remember it all. I want to absorb it and integrate it and never forget it. And I want to sketch it.

Not only is a sketchbook a record of what you see and feel about your journey, it helps you to integrate information that otherwise has been acquired at a fast pace. Sketching is a time to absorb it all, remember it and relax as you let your mind play it back for you and recreate it on the page.

There were several times I wished for more time and my sketchbook--while viewing Kanawha Falls, sharing a picnic on boulders beside the Gauley River or while examining a beautiful Jack-in-the-Pulpit. Time is at a premium every day of our lives. And because sketching deepens my pleasure and the depth of what I've enjoyed, as much as I can manage it, it will continue to be an important part of my experience, whether before, during or after!

The above sketch was created in my sketchbook, watercolor (and ink on the bridge) on 90# coldpress Arches paper.

Click this link for more about my experiences at the New River Birding and Nature Festival. Scroll down to start at the first post. And for information about West Virginia's New River Festival click here.

Sketching a Limpkin

2010-04-12T20:44:00.001-04:00

What a fun bird to sketch--a long-legged, long billed Limpkin.

I was introduced to this bird in January in Brevard County, Florida, at the Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands, also known as, Viera Wetlands. My first view of this species was from way across the wetlands. I couldn't believe my good fortune when on my second visit to the wetlands, we happened upon this handsome individual foraging near the road.

I wish everybody would take the time to sketch what they love in nature. There are few things more intimate than studying a bird (or insert any subject), its feather arrangement, color, its eyes, beak, all the many special attributes that make it suited for the habitat it lives in, as well as, the food it eats. And all of this comes together to give you a deeper understanding of how it all fits together to equal its personality and habits.

I found the spade-shaped white tips on the Limpkin's feathers captivating and beautiful. There are several possibilities for creating these white tips in watercolor--saving the white paper, using masking fluid to resist the paint around it, using the opaque watercolor known as gouache, or a combination of these. Given that half of this page spread was blue drawing paper, I opted for white gouache.

The first thing I had to wrap my mind around, was the shape of this bird's head. I went over the pencil sketch several times to position the angle of the head and jaw as it moves into the throat. I think because of the ruffled feathers, I was initially seeing a more rounded shape and this is a bird with a slender head and neck

The eye, of course, holds the expression. While many artists leave the eye for last, I prefer to put it in early. It gives the bird life and makes it easier for me to see its personality take shape as I paint. Of course, you run the risk of messing it up, too. I lost the lower dark edge and had to repair it. Since the sketch has given me the look I want, when I create a painting I may consider adding the eye after all the facial feathers are in place.

If you haven't tried sketching a bird, you should give it a try. Never mind, that you think you can't draw. This is a sketch. The idea is to get to know the bird. And when you've studied a face like this Limpkin for a while, you can't help but love what you're sketching.

To see photos of this Limpkin foraging and preening, visit The Delightful Limpkin and Delightful Limpkin II at Vickie Henderson Art. To learn more about the Viera Wetlands in Brevard Co. Florida, click here.

Fumbling En Plein Air

2010-04-07T09:32:00.000-04:00

That's what my first 2010 outside sketching adventure felt like this past weekend--fumbling.

On the ground, nearly eye level with Virginia Bluebells, Bluets and some kind of unsavory large orange ants, I created a pencil sketch of the bluebells before retreating to a nearby stump to continue sketching.

I learn so much each time I try sketching outdoors--lessons in organization, coordination, focus, to name a few, and let's don't leave out memory or personality insights.

Virginia Bluebells

I forgot my water container. And nope, there was no paper towel or tissue to soak up excess water from my juiciest of brushes. But I did bring water in a small bottle and this served as a container. It wasn't like I was miles away from the forgotten supplies, but I treated this experience just as if I were far away. There's no better way to impress the memory.

We were having a low 80's day with no leaves yet on our budding trees. More than an hour into my sketching, the late afternoon sun became uncomfortable and I dropped my paint brush. Now, dropping a paint brush isn't normally a big deal. It's not unusual for me to flip the brush out of my hand at least once while sketching. But when I retrieved it this time, it was coated with clumps of muddy earth. That was it! I retreated back to the predictability of my kitchen.

Plein air still feels overwhelming to me at the moment. But want-to is all that's needed to get through this and that, I have plenty of. A few challenges seem obvious, like having the right tools on hand, finding a comfortable place to work, making a decision about just what out of all this wonderful nature you will choose for a subject. Practice, of course, will do its magic on these.

And what you learn on these small adventures about sketching and yourself, far out weighs the awkwardness of the moment. For example, I noticed I hurry when I feel uneasy but my natural style is to take my time. I'll be aware and remember to breathe next time. And the size of my initial bluebell sketch didn't lend itself to the kind of detail I enjoy, especially with the size brush I had on hand. So I'll pack a smaller brush in my kit and remember that ink and graphite are other possibilities for this detail. My goal is to enjoy both the effort and the result.

It's a bit like learning an entirely different skill set. No one can teach this to you any more than another person can teach you your style. It's for you to explore and discover. What you see, how you express it, and how you decide to put it all together will be all your own. And in the outdoors with nature, the possibilities for this are endless!

For a brief and interesting history lesson on the term and the factors that began the en plein air movement, visit this Wiki link. You may also enjoy seeing other sketchbook pages at Vickie Henderson Art, and my Red Shouldered Hawk sketchbook.

For other fun styles and sketching experiences visit these blogs: Drawing the Motmot, Sketching in Nature and South Carolina Low Country Nature Journaling and Art.

A Turkey Work of Art

2010-04-03T23:10:00.000-04:00

That's how I feel about turkeys lately, works of art parading through my yard. (Click images to enlarge.)

Certainly not the prettiest art by some standards, unless you're a turkey, but definitely faces with character, prehistoric character. Everyone of them is uniquely decorated with expression and with those curious skin enhancements, especially the sub-adult males in the "jake" stage.

Jake is a new term for me (an immature tom), along with snood, caruncles and dewlap, all descriptive terms for various parts of the turkey anatomy, that I discovered while researching the difference between young and mature, male and female. I found a nice anatomy reference on the Wild Turkey Federation's website (link below).

In general females have feathers on their heads while males do not. The males develop a bald head that appears whitish in the mature tom, with reddish skin enhancements that increase as they mature. The major caruncles extend down their neck and these folds of skin become bright red and engorged with blood while courting. Females have some skin enhancements also, but they are generally smaller and bluish making her overall appearance camouflaged while incubating.

According to my Atlas of the Breeding Birds in Tennessee, males establish territories in late winter here and hold them throughout the spring with egg-laying peaking during the last two weeks of April. I'm mostly seeing females and immature males. It does make me wonder where male territories would be around this suburban area, with its pockets of agricultural fields and wooded ravines.

If I see a male displaying, you'll be the first to know. That would definitely fall into my idea of art!

Visit the Wild Turkey Federation's anatomy page and run your cursor across the sketch to see terms used for various parts of the anatomy.
You may also want to visit my other Wild Turkey sketch pages at Vickie Henderson Art.

Practice is the Magic of Talent

2010-03-26T11:36:00.000-04:00

So often people think of talent as something they don't have, something mysterious and unobtainable, a thing you're either born with or not. So I'm introducing my new sketching blog, Vickie's Sketchbook, with a closer look at this thing we call talent.

The bird you see above is a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, sketched a few months ago in 2009. I first encountered this bird ten years ago, in the year 2000. I remember it well, not because I was bird watcher who kept a list of sightings, but because I sketched it.

Not only was the bird new to me, but sketching birds was new to me, too. For whatever reason my desire to sketch, paint, draw and write was resurfacing, getting stronger. And this was one of those fun moments that brought my two loves together--nature and art. I had yet to take my first watercolor class and bird sketching was not something I practiced. And so you see my first crude attempt to capture this bird, sketching it from a field guide in a plain paper journal with a child's watercolor set.

That doesn't mean you have to practice for ten years to achieve this kind of difference. The sketch you see above was created in 2008, also before I committed myself to frequent practice. It was not until January of 2009 that I began to realize, not only could I photograph these small birds, but I really could capture them with art. This was a confidence-boosting insight called believing. Then I really began to have fun.

Connecting with your desire to paint or sketch is only the beginning. Practice is what makes talent. And practice is a two-fold process--training your eyes to see and getting to know your medium. Practice over time allows you to relax and use your intuition. The piece you create then becomes both part of the world you see and part of you.

Sound magical? It is. There isn't any mystery to it, though. It happens naturally. And all you have to do is show up with sketchbook in hand. The initial result may not be exactly what you wanted or fall short of your hopes, but every effort counts. No time is wasted. Your mind is constantly learning and integrating, filing away every experience into your How-to-Sketch library. Then one day, when you least expect it, it will come spilling out onto the page and surprise you!

My new blog, Vickie's Sketchbook, is a companion blog to Vickie Henderson Art, where I blog about what I see through my camera's lens and the inspiration for my art. To see the images that inspired the above sketch pages, click here.