Mammoths, Diatrymas and Bison latifrons

Had a lovely day with a couple of art friends, Becky and Mitsuno, sketching for fun at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. We went to a quiet spot in the Ancient Life Gallery that is inhabited by creatures of the Pleistocene, Miocene, and Eocene. Some beautiful bony beasts in there. I decided to switch from pencil to Sharpie pen today, working in a 5″x8″Moleskine sketchbook. Sometimes it’s just satisfying to play in black and white. But then Becky loaned me her waterbrush and teeny tiny watercolor box, a 2″ metal thing meant for kids. She’d dug out the cheap cake watercolor and replaced it with quality tube paint, squeezed into the little spaces and allowed to dry. I’m now determined to follow her example. The perfect pocket paint kit.

Nothing like a big, hungry,  fast running bird of prey to keep things interesting for the bird-watchers of the Eocene Era.

There is something restorative, refreshing and motivating about drawing. It’s a beautiful thing, the way it re-orders the universe and aligns the brain cells with the fingers and eyes and the heart, if I may be a little florid about it. A few hours of sketching is called for every so often. Dr. Motmot recommends it highly.

We were struck by how hand-like the forefeet of the Mammoth were. 

Goatsuckers Redux

Chuckwill’s widow, drawing and reference skin

Oklahoma’s been officially declared a Disaster, so I think we’re back to normal. Here at the Motmot Ranch we have power and water again, and I’ve been working on a couple of paintings: one new commission and one I just brought home from the gallery, looked at with a fresh eye (I’ve never been happy with it, to tell you the truth) and attacked it with gusto and much more pigment. It’s an all-new painting, and when it’s a little farther along I might even post it.

In the meantime, I’d like to return to the Goatsucker Plate Project. Last post, I was fine-tuning the rough sketches. This meant face time with museum skins, and the advice of a team of experts in the field of bird art- Jim Coe, Mike DiGiorgio, Barry Van Dusen and Cindy House.

First step was putting a sheet of tracing paper over each rough sketch. With the skin in front of me, I could examine the feathers closely. With study skins, however, the feather tracts do not lay out as they do in a live bird- they get smoothed together. Working from reference photos and field studies are helpful here.

Whippoorwill, skin and first drawing

Whippoorwill, first draft

The first Whippoorwill drawing needed a lot of refining in the wing and head. My expert team weighed in with detailed notes on the wing, the head, the bill, the eye. A lot of stuff was unresolved, perspective-wise. Some of these things you don’t see until you start painting. I wanted to get everything fixed well before then- watercolor can grant some reprieves, but nothing beats getting it right at the outset.

Whippoorwill, second drawing- note the changes to the wing and head

Common Poorwill, drawing on tracing paper over original rough sketch, and museum skin for reference

When the drawings were at the point where we were all reasonably satisfied, I collected a little habitat material (read: I went outside and picked up rocks and leaves) to add some visual context for the birds. I played with page layout as well. I could have painted each bird as a separate piece and had the graphic artists at Bird Watcher’s Digest place them onto the plate, but in the end I decided to do all three birds and the tail detail studies on one sheet. After all, it’s the traditional way.

I’ll Have the Goatsucker Plate

Chuck-will’s Widow, drawn from skins

Last week I finished up an illustration for Bird Watcher’s Digest’s ID Yourself. Julie Zickefoose has brilliantly helmed this feature for years, and for an upcoming issue, I did my humble best to keep the ship on course. Thanks to a team of crack bird art consultants (Jim Coe, Cindy House, Mike DiGiorgio and Barry Van Dusen, all field guide veterans) and Museum ornithologists (Gary Schnell, Amanda Person), I got it done, and on time, even (lucky for me; this weekend an ice storm has moved in and is going to keep me- and probably everyone else- from doing much traveling into early next week).

The text was the starting point; written by Alvaro Jaramillo, it described some of the finer points of separating out three North American goatsuckers: Chuck-will’s widow, Whippoorwill, and Poorwill. Since all three species occur here in Oklahoma, I have a personal interest in learning those distinctions myself. A big plus is that the Sam Noble Museum in Norman has all three in their collection.

A drawer full of Whippoorwills for a drawer of Whippoorwills (give it a moment).

First came the rough sketches, working from photos and memory (I’ve seen Chucks and Poorwills but haven’t been lucky enough to see a Whip).

Chuckwill’s Widow, Rough sketch #1

Chuckwill’s widow, Rough sketch #2

Whippoorwill Rough sketch

Common Poorwill, Rough sketch

 

These were submitted for approval. Next, I went to the museum’s bird collection, where Amanda let me pick out the skins, and very obligingly allowed me to set up a small studio for a few days in the collection room, with drawing board, risers to bring the skins up near eye level, my watercolor kit, and a daylight lamp. Using a calipers and ruler, I turned the rough sketches into measured drawings.

Next: fine-tuning the drawings.