Sleeping Flamingos

Yesterday, I went to the Como Zoo to sketch in public. I really like going to the zoo to draw. Most of my time was spent with the ducks and flamingos, although I did visit other displays and worked on sketches of other creatures. So far, my favorite animal to sketch is whatever animal is being perfectly still, which means that I like animals who are sleeping. Although, I could develop a side business. If you want your kids to see animals awake and moving around, just have them follow me around when I am trying to sketch animals who appear to be sleeping soundly.

There were several flamingos who were semi-cooperative.

It's weird, but flamingos don't look like flamingos from this angle when they are sleeping. I tried to do a few sketches from more of a head-on view, since the curl and angle of the neck was fascinating. None of those flamingos would hold a pose long enough for me. The only flamingos who stayed fairly still were all in this position and I could only see them from the essentially the same angle. The drawings on the right are closer to the true relationship of the height versus width. 

What I'm finding is that I am noticing more, but can't hold the details in my head long enough to get them on paper and live subjects move so frequently! I am looking forward to the Bell Museum of Natural History opening back up next summer and being able to sketch animals in the dioramas.

Cat Drawings

I am still sketching every day for at least 30 minutes. Most times that does not feel like enough time. I wish there was more time for drawing and painting, but I'm grateful to be squeezing in at least 30 minutes per day. Progress is slower now that class is done. It takes time and effort to keep the habit going, including mapping out what to draw and focus on each day, and learning to evaluate my own drawings. I am working to figure out how to use various tools, pencil, pen, brush pen, and watercolor to name a few, although I mostly stick with pencil and pen. I am working to figure out how to make marks that capture and convey what I want to show. I am working to figure out my relationship to detail. That's just some of what's going on!!

Two nights ago, I worked on sketching cats. My intention was to capture a contour drawing of the cat and select an area to "finish". The cats had other plans. While the gray ones were mostly cooperative, they were shifting a bit too often. This was the start of one that was going well and her body placement was interesting. I used her glorious ears as a marker to figure out where her hips and back portion were in relationship to those ears. One of the things I'm trying is to make my initial lines lighter, so if they need refinement the drawing is less messy.

After several partial contour drawings, I switched to her face. Most of my drawing goals for the current 4-6 weeks are general, but one of the specific ones is to work on cat's eyes. It's weird, but in the last several weeks I've had some good experiences starting with the eyes and working my way out. That's what I did with this sketch. This is different from what I've mostly read or been told, although Roz tends to do this for her portraits. The lesson that I take from this is that I need to be willing to experiment and try different ways of approaching a drawing.

This is where having limited time can be a problem. It takes time to figure out and make marks to show value and texture. Also, I don't think I have the stamina to finish a complete sketch yet. I sketched about 45 minutes on the night I was sketching cats. When I got to this point, my time was up and I was ready to be done.

It's hard to figure out how to show 3 dimensions in 2 dimensions, but I think I'm making progress. One of the things I'm interested in is figuring out how to show the slope / depth of how a cat's face shifts up from the nose to the forehead. I know from looking at cat's in profile that the part straight back from the nose angles up and away.  As it gets close to being even with the eyes, the angle shifts. It shifts again as the nose shifts to the forehead. When I was looking at the cat straight on, this shift was mostly represented as a change in value.

While I like this sketch, I also really, really, really want to figure out how to convey the same understanding of values, but with less detail.

Window / Door / Portal - Homework Painting 1

The general homework assignment for the July meeting of my painting class/club is windows, doors, or portals. While I put myself through a significant amount of angst figuring out what to paint for our last assignment, this one is starting out much easier. If the windows in the house are closed for several days, the cats are highly motivated to hang out in the windows when the windows are opened back up again.  They love to experience the world through an open window and this seems very much in keeping with the theme or a portal or entrance to another world, since the cats are all indoor house cats. I've had several good photo sessions with them and ended up with some good pictures. I'm especially thrilled that several of the pictures show a reflection in the window. I selected the one with the simplest reflection for my first attempt.

For my skill level, this is a complicated scene for me. I am still the most comfortable dealing with one object per painting. It's really good practice and experience to tackle an entire scene with multiple objects and many more decisions to make. I was surprised at how "real" the purple garage looks. Another thing to note is that I continue to feel more "in control" of my values and use of color. For instance, the indoor colors were more muted, since they weren't in natural light. The outdoors really did pop in places. For an editing standpoint, the eyes don't quite work. They are too big, so I might fix that. I also might work on his tail, since it sort of disappears.  

This was painted in two sessions and I'm glad that I did not rush. 

While I miss posting more frequently on this blog, it's been more important to fit in the minimum of 30 minutes of drawing each day, which gets replaced by two longer sessions of drawing in public each week. This was the recommendation post-drawing class and so far, I've continued with it. 

Ahoy, Mom! Flamingos!

I finished up work early today and stopped to sketch at the Como Zoo for an hour on my way home. I was extremely fortunate, since I think it was the first day that the flamingos were out. Even better, I got to watch the zoo keepers and I presume some volunteers release the flamingos. My pictures weren't great, but here is the best one.

Not long after all of the flamingos had settled into the water, I heard a boy yell, excitedly, "Ahoy, Mom!  Flamingos!".

While I was at the zoo, I worked on some gesture sketches and some contour sketches. If the bird or animal would stay mostly still, I also added some details. I would like to be more disciplined and do smaller gesture sketches, but they seem to end up pretty large. I did about 5 pages of sketches. Most were fast and rough.

When I first started doing quick sketches of the flamingos, they looked more like swans or geese. It took a bit to really see the odd "S" curve in a flamingo's neck. There's a lot of variability, but it's always there unless they are stretching their heads up as tall as possible.

I tried some rough sketches of ducks.

I was grateful for the duck that was sleeping. I wish I could have sighted him from a different angle. 

Lastly, I hung out with the two sea lions for a bit. They are really amazing. It's fun to try and do gesture sketches.  Several times when I've sketched them, they will do the most interesting poses with their necks and heads. I'm not sure how to capture the solidity of the bottom 2/3's of their bodies versus the fluidity and lightness of the top 1/3. I try not to get stuck on this. I figure if I'm noticing this, I'll eventually figure out a way to capture it.

All and all, it was an enjoyable hour spent at the zoo on an absolutely beautiful Tuesday afternoon.

Skills Do Crossover and Practice Does Lead To Improvement

I have made a commitment to myself to draw for 30 minutes each day. My goal is to draw with intention, so that I can eventually sketch live subjects from life, not pictures. I don't know if I will get there or, if I do, how long it will take. At the same time, I have to find a way to fit acrylic painting back in my life, because I miss it so. How this will work with a busy life in gardening season, I am not completely sure. One of my goals, post-drawing class, is to figure it out. The first priority each and every day is to draw.

My current strategy for getting in more painting time is to paint smaller and to also use simpler items. That should make it easier to pick up a paint brush more frequently each week. I also need to be realistic and remember that priming surfaces with gesso, finding things or images to paint, and drawing prior to picking up a brush all support my painting practice. When work is less busy, I have more time to paint and frequently will carve out time to finish a painting in one sitting. That's not the present situation and carving out 30 minutes either in preparation of painting or actual painting several times a week is worthy and good.

Enough of that.

I did take time to paint today. This is a 5" x 5" painting.

It was a wonderful experience. Mostly because I felt in control and was in a better place about seeing shapes and values, making decisions about what I wanted to do, and executing that. With seeing, I feel like slowly this bigger more interesting world is unveiling itself before my eyes.

I also feel like I'm seeing a payoff from the drawing class and spending the last month trying to soak up the content from the class and also drawing from 3D subjects. The idea of the shapes created by the changes in values makes more sense to me.  I shouldn't be surprised by how much I think the crossover from drawing to painting went, but I am!

In this painting, I like the shapes and the values of the colors that support and define the shape. It captures the actual pepper pretty well. Although, this painting is on the darker side so was the pepper, plus it still works from across the room. The one thing that I'd like to improve upon is slowing down and taking more care with painting the highlights.

Puffin Practice In Pencil

I went to the Como Zoo today to sketch in public. Post-class, we are being encouraged to do this two times per week. Here are the puffins. I also did a few quick sketch of sea lions and the polar bear's face.

Drawing Class Is Done (Sniff, Sniff)

It was a good experience and taught me so much. Now, I just need to keep at it, but also find time to get back to painting. My goal is to continue to draw for 30 minutes each and every day. There is so much to learn!! I'm practicing not trying to get to a complete sketch, so I may not include much here.

One of the things that I want to figure out is how to get more of a 3D feeling to my drawings. When I have a few space minutes, I thought I could work on drawing my hand at funny angles and to use lines to give more of a feeling of the shape. I may try to do this during lunch time during the work week. I did two drawings like that today. Here is the better of the two. Ignore the finger in the lower right-hand corner.  It does not really work.