New England Sketchbook Pages Updated

Here’s the finished drawing from the previous post. It’s on New England Sketchbook 1

I’ve just updated my New England Sketchbook Page, and as it was getting a little unwieldy, I’ve added a second one, New England Sketchbook Page: Critters N’ More. The first page has been updated further. Some of the older versions of my forest drawings are now brightened with pastel color touches.

Snow Patch, graphite and pastel on Rives BFK. Before and after pastel addition.

Swift River Sugar Maple, before and after

I’ve been keeping all my drawings out where I can see them, hung up to dry on clotheslines strung around the house. Literally. Clothespins hold them on the lines. It’s useful to see the development of a large number of works; you can see where your muse is taking you, watch for improvement, check for the emergence of new ideas. The latest idea is color- what a concept.

And so you can see what it’s like drawing out there in the woods, take a look at what the well-dressed sketcher is wearing these days. I’m drawing a spruce tree and surrounded by frustrated mosquitoes, although usually the favored insect is blackfly. I can’t decide which I like better!

Laugh if you will, but I feel oh-so pretty in my BugBaffler Hoodie. Cinematography by Dr. M. Kaspari.

The Difference Between a Sketch and a Drawing

This is a sketch- It’s a lovely little brook behind Benson House, with charming waterfalls and babbling cascades. I drew it in about 30 minutes while sitting on a mossy boulder and being sucked dry by mosquitos and blackflies. I’ll do a full-scale drawing of it later, going back with my field equipment and using better paper and  some color. This was just a scouting trip.

This is my plein air drawing setup: a Winsor & Newton Giant Meadow Sketching Easel, a folding table, a hollow-core drawing board. When I go to this much trouble, I call it Drawing.

What’s a sketch, but a quick record of a momentary experience? And what’s a drawing, but a finished rendering? In my book, a sketch has a lot of air between the lines, captures ephemera, and is usually raw material for something more complete later on. Drawings, while they may be done plein air as though they were sketches, are begun with more forethought and planning and potentially a frame, mat, glass and space on someone’s wall in mind. The sketches stay in the book where they belong. The drawings are the final product.

After being here about 7 weeks I’m up to 16 plein air drawings of the Harvard Forest and environs. This past week I’ve been having fun adding color via pastels to everything, including my clothes and my own face. The drawings range in size from 10″x10″ to 22″x30″, and due to a shipping error by an art supplier, I now have ten sheets of Rives BFK extra-large 32″x40″, for which I’ll go to the lumber yard and fetch a piece of plywood to function as a drawing board large enough for those big honkin’ sheets. I’m ready for big. There’s some pretty awesome subject matter around here: waterfalls, old-growth trees, boulders, lakes, mountains. A whole forest beckons.

I’m going to need a bigger wall.

Sugar maple at the end of the driveway, partly completed drawing with pastel added. Drawing measures 15″x22″.

Boulders dropped hither and yon by retreating glaciers are called Glacial Erratics. Cool name, and they make pleasingly interesting subjects.

Here’s the drawing underway. I’ll photograph and post the finished piece, which has pastel color added. This one measures 19″ x 25″.

Another sugar maple, this one at the entrance to Shaler Hall and the Fisher Museum, Harvard Forest. It’s a magnificent tribute to the power of pancakes and an early settler’s craving for sweets. Plus, it’s a tree that’s chock full ‘o character.

I drew this on Martha’s Vineyard: a windblown, solitary oak- the only one growing in a windswept stubble field on the edge of the ocean. Cindy House and I sat on the ground and drew it together until our hands went numb from the wind. When we stood up we were leaning over, too. I’ve added pastel color. 15″ x 8.5″.

Bird-Drawing Tip: Get Familiar

Familiar has a double-meaning in this case. Barry Van Dusen said a smart thing the other day, that if you wish to successfully draw a bird, draw that bird over and over until you assimilate its form. Stay within that bird family long enough to grok it. If you draw warblers and then switch over to herons you’ll have a bit of disconnect until you get the hang of long legs and long necks . Draw a lot of one family until that particular morphology makes some sense and becomes second nature to you, until you get the hang of the proportions and movements. A warbler is a bird, and so is a stork, and so is a mudhen but it will be less frustrating if you practice on one type at a time. Get comfortable with one bird family before you move on to another. For example: Monday=Raptor Day, Tuesday=Shorebird Day, Wednesday=Cassowary Day (or whatever shows up for you). Try it!

Bad I.D. alert: it’s a Parula warbler, folks. Jumped the gun a little, but now I have another life bird to look forward to!

Lately it’s been Warbler Day every day. That’s all about drawing with your head thrown back, looking straight up. Sore necks (yours) are part of the process. But worth it!

Exception to the Warbler Neck Rule: Ovenbirds are walkin’ warblers, found on the ground.