Woodys & Nutties & Hummers, Oh My!

The feed I have been putting out for the birds is finally paying off! As I sat in the recliner this afternoon, I could see that Nuthatches and Woodpeckers finally found the thistleseed and suet I put on the big pine out front. But I was most amazed with all the Hummers that were dive bombing each other to get to the nectar feeder. One little, gutsy female was fighting off all the others....males included! She even took up a post on top of the shepherd's hook that the feeder is hung on, looking left and right watching for any intruders that would dare to try and sip from HER feeder!

As for my little monarch caterpillar (no, I didn't name him!) he is growing by leaps and bounds! Thankfully I have been able to keep him stashed with plenty of milkweed leaves! The girl that works next to me brought hers in to work this morning because it broke out of its cocoon this morning and once the wings are dried, needed to be let loose. We kept watching it from time to time as we worked, but the beautiful creature just hung from the roof of the butterfly box. Once we stepped outdoors to go home however, it came to life and started to flutter its wings. I had the priviledge to coaxing it onto my hand and take it out of the box as my co-worker is afraid of "insects". How beautiful it was to watch it take flight from my hand and gracefully flutter away! The one we let go was a female butterfly because it had dotted wings all around the edges. The male has solid black on the back edges. (At least I think that's what I read!) Now I can't wait for mine to get to the butterfly stage!

What to do on a rainy day?

I'm still having an major love affair........with old barns! I just can't get enough of them and even came home from the library with 3 more books of them. That will keep me busy for quite some time! I even asked my cousin (a big farmer in this area) if he knew of any unique barns with lots of character around this area. He couldn't think of any at the time, but I could see the wheels turning in this mind. I am sure he will think of a few by next week! I just may be out taking pictures during the week I am off work this month!

I DO have a new "project" that I vowed from the beginning I wouldn't do, but the girls at work sort of drew me into it, and it all came about from tramping through our woods looking for milkweed! I am now the proud mama of a baby Monarch catapiller! The girls at work have been "harvesting" monarch butterflies all summer and was having trouble finding the milkweed that they feast on. I said I would look in our woods for some and in looking at the leaves, trying not to take one that was "occupied", I overlooked and plucked one leaf that had a baby catapiller on it. Instead of casting it aside (none of the girls wanted another one to care for), I now have my own butterfly box and am "nurturing" this catapiller through to the butterfly stage. That means I will have to go out and regularly find milkweed for the next month until it goes into the chrysallis stage. No problem. We have plenty at the back of our woods! Anyway, I just may do some sketching of my little fella ....so much more fun to sketch the process rather than take photos!

Its a rainy afternoon and I plan to sit and do some sketching. I have started another sketch like the one of the girl and lamb. The proportions of the first drawing was pretty bad and I love this subject enough to try it again. Here's  a poem that would go great with the picture:

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring Him a lamb;
If I were a wise man, I would do my part;
Yet what can I give Him? ---
Give Him my heart.

This week's sketches

The weather has been so beautiful these past couple of days! Last night we opened all the windows and enjoyed the cooler temps. After it had turned dark, we retired to the bedroom and DH promptly fell asleep so I had planned to do some sketching, but a noise from outside caught my attention...a sound that made my hair stand on end. I went to the kitchen window and listened...off in the near distance (probably on the other side of the field behind our house) was a howling...but it certainly didn't sound like a dog, and besides, there are no houses in the direction of the howl. This was a very high pitched, wavery howl.....the only animal I can think of in this area that would howl like that is a coyote. I slipped out the patio door and stood on the deck and listened. It spooked me so bad that I quickly came back inside and locked the door. I stood again at the kitchen window and hear muffled yelping VERY near. Got to remember to keep an eye on our dog Casey when I let her out in the middle of the night!!

This morning...another gorgeous morning... I had the pleasure of sitting on the deck listening to the birds chirping. Jays, finches, cardinals and the most distinct, the cry of a hawk down in the woods. I never realized they had two very different distinct sounds and wasn't sure what it was until it took off from a grove of trees beside the house and landed in a tree in our woods. There it sat for a long time, crying....

Didn't get much sketching done this week...just the two below. I stopped off at the library this morning and came home with an armload of books. Pen and Ink Sketching by Peter Caldwell; Drawing in Pen & Ink by Claudia Nice; Creative Pen & Ink Techniques; and The Drawing Handbook by Frank Lohan. This should keep me busy for a while!

(Seems these scanned darker than the original sketches so I tried to do a white "fill" on the picture of the girl with lamb. Looks like I missed a couple of dark spots! Oh well, at least you can get an idea of the finished sketch!)

Another Barn

I absolutely love drawing old barns! This one was sketched first in 2b pencil then detailed in pen and ink. I fell in love with the original 1943 lithograph "Barns at Glen Gardner" by artist, Wanda Gag when I was looking through some books on Barns and decided to include it as one of my art studies on old barns. It took me approximately 5 hours to complete. I'm beginning to love working with pen and ink and it is sooooo much easier than I thought it would be! I just may try doing another on larger paper so that I can frame it. The Pen and Ink Techniques book says that a pen and ink sketch looks better framed if the picture doesn't go all the way to the edge of the paper. Thanks to the EDM group for inspiring me to start drawing again! I hadn't picked up the pen to draw in 2 years until I found them. THANKS to everyone for the inspiration you have given me with all your wonderful art!!

Newest Sketch!

This is how I spent my lunch hour today! I guess it wasn't so bad that I didn't have the car today (DH's car wouldn't start and he had to take me to work) because if I did, I wouldn't have attempted drawing this! It has its flaws but in all, I am very pleased with it as I have never tried people in pen and ink. I do know that I need to save my pennies and buy some artist grade watercolors. I used a brush and watercolor pencils, applying the wash with the brush instead of direct pencil to paper. It is amazing how engrossed I can become when drawing...the hour flew by.....didn't touch my apple or take one sip of my Pepsi that turned warm as I sketched!

Pen and Ink studies of barns

Being the "country girl" that I am, barns are one of the few buildings that I love to draw. My problem is that after I spend so much time in drawing in pen and ink, I am afraid to try watercolors on them for fear of ruining the drawing! I definitely need more work on drawing trees and the leaves. I overworked the 1st drawing to the point of ruining the values of the picture as a whole.

I love drawing in pen and ink and enjoy it even more than graphite. All three of these were drawn without the pencil sketch first and even though there are blantant errors, I really don't mind them! These were practice sketches I did from the book "Pen and Ink Techniques" by Frank Lohan. My next barn sketch I want to try from a photo. There aren't many barns here that have this much character and I would feel funny (and a bit unsafe) sitting along the side of a country road sketching all by myself!

Catnapping

Having worked lots of overtime in the past week, getting up at 3:30am each morning, I frequently find my DH dozing on the couch in the evenings. He is usually in bed by 8pm when he has to get up early, but last night he found that there was a Sopranos marathon on TV, and he was quickly hooked! He managed to doze off a couple of times while he was watching it! This sketch was done very roughly in graphite pencil before he turned over (probably in less than 1 minute!) then I added the details later. He looks alot younger in the picture because I didn't add all his "character lines"! ;) It's pretty close to his likeness though.