Moth sketches

I have been watering a bunch of seemingly dead iris, hoping they will come back. They were caught in a late freeze, and are mostly a bunch of dead leaves. The other day, though, I saw a few green shoots. They may not make it, but there is always hope if you are a gardener.


Anyhow, I startled this moth with the water from my hose. It flew into my nearby hosta plants and stayed put for a while, which allowed me to take a few pictures and sketch it. I am finding that photography is a very useful addition to my sketching method- it allows me to magnify some details of insects. In this case, I magnified the moth's head to add to my sketch.


I have not identified this to genera or species. The family, I think, is Noctuidae. Some of these are plant pests. Although I took entomology courses in college, I am not a moth expert. Butterflies and moths are becoming my new mind-stretching field of exploration, though. More on that in a future post! (If you are an expert, and know a definite id on this one, please let me know!).


This is a typical sketch page for me. I went back to my half-completed field sketchbook, rather than the mixed media paper one I used in the previous post. Some watercolor from a previous page is ghosting through on the left side, but this is more of a problem in the scan than in my book. I tend to work with a small book (5.5"x8.5"), and prefer the hardbound field books. I take a lot of notes with subjects like this. It can be very important to note where you find an insect, and what it is doing. If I am not using color, the color notes become very important. And with this moth, I noted the lighter underwings when it flew to the hosta.


The moth was gone this morning. I had a yard full of robins yesterday (I counted at least 8 at one point, fighting over the birdbath!), and they hopped right by it, so I suspect it flew away after dark.


I'll be announcing a new sketch series next week, so stay tuned!

Astronomy Sketches

I've been planning to put some of these on the blog, but time has been getting away from me! This is a sketch of the penumbral eclipse in my astronomy journal. I learned quite a bit during this adventure, mainly that I should always sketch the moon's major maria and craters in before the event! It is too difficult to juggle a sketchbook and a pair of binoculars or a telescope, and draw in details. Lesson learned. Next time, I will plan (and draw!) ahead.

The second drawing shows the orange glow that appeared around the moon later that evening. I like the Ingres paper a lot for sketches like the first one (graphite), but less for ones like this (waxy colored pencil). The colored pencils I was using just did not want to cooperate on this paper.

I also have sketches from last week's lunar occultation. I hope to share more of my sketches in the future, and beg for your patience as I try to get them to show up better in the photos. I think scanning might be a better option.

Time for art!

Today was a lovely day spent with family. In addition, I had time to spread a bit of acrylic texture around on a few canvases to get them ready for painting. Opening up jars of paint and holding a palette knife or paintbrush brings me great joy.

I love that beat up old brush. It gives me textures that I can't get with a new one. The canvases on the left were gessoed. The one on the right has been spread with acrylic texture medium to prepare it for painting.

My paintings are taking many days of prep work, lately. It is a little difficult to hold on to the spark of delight that led me to want to paint each scene to begin with. I guess I've been spoiled by my acrylic paints. Oil painters deal with this all the time, unless they only paint alla prima.


I also had a chance to do a bit of sketching today. In my Christmas stocking was a Lamy Safari pen, so I have been trying it out. I am able to get a bit of variation in my lines, which was not the case with my fiber tipped and technical pens. I'm going to load it with a more water-resistant ink and see if I like it combined with watercolor. I've never been an ink/watercolor sketcher before (always preferred the softness of pencil!), but ink shows up better when you are sharing sketches online, so I'm giving it a try. And I love the raspberry color of my new pen!

Rough Sketches of Bird Behavior

I will get back to the Prairie Journal later. I wanted to show how rough some of my observational sketches are, day-to-day.

Why show the scribbles? These are *not* Art. But they are examples of how keeping a regular sketchbook or journal can prompt scientific questions. It can also help you work through some of those questions, and is an important record of what you are seeing.

If I draw something, I remember what I see much more clearly. The artistic and the logical, scientific side of the brain are working together. The scientist wins most of the battle in pages like this, though. I need to get the information down, fast. It is too easy to forget details.

Here is one of my field journal pages as an example. I was looking out of the back window, and I saw four woodpeckers (Northern Flickers) in the yard. That is unusual: I usually see only one at a time.

Sorry about the red glare!

Two of them put their beaks into the air and began to bob their heads and move them side to side. It looked like a dance. I grabbed the sketchbook, scribbled down their positions in the grass, and made some notes. I always include a date, and usually include a bit about the weather. I didn't try to get a realistic Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker drawing down. Just the rough shapes, and a record of the motion.

The next step was to comb my books. What were they doing? They flew off in separate directions after doing this dance, so maybe it wasn't a courtship dance. I found nothing in the first three books I checked, and then found in the Birder's Handbook that it probably was a courtship dance. I noted that, and the reference.

This then prompted further questions. Why now? Shouldn't I have seen this in the spring? It seems strange for the end of summer. Maybe there is time to raise another brood of Flickers. How long does it take to incubate the eggs, and fledge the young? Where are they nesting? These are questions I still need to research, and in the case of the nest, observe to try to find out.

Because I have this rough scribble, I can use this as a jumping-off point to learn more about the Flickers. Maybe someone else has observed this in my part of Nebraska in August. And, if not, here is a record! I sometimes look back through my field journals, and can see trends over time.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Birds and other animals can be tough to sketch, especially when they are moving. The end result is worth it, even if you think it is too rough. You can always go back later and do a detailed drawing based on what you have learned. Think of this as information-gathering, and keep it in a separate field book, not where you keep your artistic drawings. That helps to separate the two.

Wanderings...

I suppose I am a wanderer at heart. My parents used to take us on long car trips through the western U.S. when I was young, and I used to wonder what it would be like to live in some of the little western towns, surrounded by cattle and sagebrush. I would look at the houses, at the curtained windows, and wonder what their day was like: what experiences would be normal and routine for them, but foreign to me. Now I can say that I have lived in a small western town, surrounded by cattle and sagebrush. What a grace to experience other worlds, other vistas in this vast, beautiful country we live in.

For now, I am back home. Here we will probably stay, though I still dream of visiting a little cabin in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho, or the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. A change of location brings many other changes: ways of working change; goals change. This move has been no different.

There are so many stories to be told here in Louisiana. I think for a while here I will be focusing on nature sketches and writing, telling some of these stories in words and pictures. It will be interesting to compare my sketches from years ago to the same areas today.

My aunt once told me that my grandmother loved the sight of the cypress trees and Spanish moss coming back into view after being away. I love that sight, too. I know some of my readers are visiting this blog from other places, and do not know this scenery. Stay tuned, and I will be delighted to share some of it with you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is my well-worn painting bag, collecting patches and pins from National Parks and Monuments. I like it because it is waterproof and has little pockets for all sorts of supplies. Inside, I can also fit a few sketchbooks. It was not designed to be an artist's bag, but it is just right for the things I need to carry!