Irish fields

I love Ireland, and its green, green fields. I like standing there sketching what I see, listening to the birds cawing, making out the jackdaws from the crows by their calls. These were carrion crows. As I was drawing the fog descended and by the time I finished the trees on the horizon were not visible anymore. So beautiful.

Sketching Ollie

Sketching a dog is no easy task, like all animals they seem to perceive you are looking at them even when they are asleep. The result is most sketches are done in the few minutes they lay still while snoozing.
Dogs come in so many different shape and sizes, and present such variety in coats - curly, wavy, wire, short or, like Ollie, soft and wavy with furnishings -, it seems possible to mould them into almost any way we wish. Not always to the benefit of the dog, actually.
Ollie is a miniature Schnauzer, one of many small breeds of dogs. Recently, scientists have started paying close attentions to these wonderful animals, and have been studying the magic in the genetics of such variety. A study published in Science magazine, in 2007, revealed a single IGF1 haplotype is responsible for size variation in the domestic dog. For further reading: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Why_Small_Dogs_Are_Small_999.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2789551/

Blackbirds

I came across these studies of a baby blackbird I raised last year, and thought I'd share them. This is the perfect age to use chicks as models. At this stage, they perch and remain still for long periods of time, waiting to be fed, happy to be near you.
It is an Old World blackbird, belonging to the genus Turdus - a Turdus merula - unrelated to the American blackbirds. They are quite common in urban gardens, and given the chaos of urban life, plenty of chicks get separated from their parents in the spring.
I used watersoluble graphite pencils; they are a great tool, allowing for fast, flowing lines. I filled in the form using a water brush once the sketch was done.

Barbara Bacci

Canadian wolf

This is a new exhibit at the Natural History Museum. The species is gray wolf, Canis lupus, but I don't know which of the four existing subspecies present in Canada it belongs to. Does anyone? Id' love to know.
The color of wolves' fur varies from white, white and tan, to reddish, gray or brown mixed with black. But does the fur's color serve a camouflage purpose? I found this interesting article on the subject and would like to share it with you: http://www.world-science.net/othernews/090206_wolf.htm

Butterflies

Recently I visited this butterflies installation at a modern art museum here in Rome. A small glass house, full of tropical plants and butterflies, it turned out to be the perfect place for a nature sketcher.

Butterflies have beautiful geometric designs, have stunning colours, they build superb chrysalis and stand quite still for long enough periods of time. I used a home made sketching pad with hot pressed Arches paper, graphite pencils, black markers and an small outdoor watercolour set.
























For more info: http://en.macro.roma.museum/mostre_ed_eventi/mostre/are_you_really_sure_that_a_floor_can_t_also_be_a_ceiling

Cephalopods

There are times when sketching from life is impossible, as when you want to portray underwater life.
I love octopuses, squids and cuttlefish, enigmatic masters of camouflage. Vulnerable due to their soft bodies, they can mimic almost any kind of background, or imitate other marine life forms, to escape predators. However, they use their capacity to change colour also to communicate. On the right is a common cuttlefish showing a threat display. This ink drawing is an adaptation from an illustration I saw in a book, but the following are quick sketches I realized while watching Underwater astonishments by David Gallo (an absolute must see!) on TED Talks, Octopus camouflage, a clip from one of David Attenborough’s documentaries on You tube, and Queen of camouflage, cuttlefish mating, a video by Annie Crawley, on You Tube. Sepias mate face to face; the male uses its hectocotylus to place sperm in a pouch positioned below the female’s mouth. Once fertilized the female lays a large number of eggs among the clumps of algae seen in the background.
At the top here on the left you can see a male cuttlefish courting a female, at the bottom a cuttlefish displaying arythmic pulsing. In the next sketch, the blue ringed octopus at the top changes colour when startled and turns yellow with blue and black rings. It's a small and very pretty octopus found in Australia, but it is so poisonous it can kill a human being. At the bottom, male squids progressively turn white when fighting other males. They can control their pigmentation and split into a whitish side, that being shown to another male, and a darker, more natural side, shown to a female. The female is above, and the male on the bottom is keeping an eye and half side of his body whitish to keep in check another male not appearing in the sketch. For this kind of faster and less detailed sketches I use watercolour pencils. I leave the whole drawing very approximate, and add some details and water later... hope you enjoy.

Olive trees.

Olive trees, Olea europaea, are native to coastal Mediterranean areas, but are cultivated worldwide. There's an orchard full of them in Villa Glori, a Roman park, and I just had to catch the spirit of one of these trees. I love their contorted branches and trunks, the grey-green foliage,

Happy Easter

The Lamb
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

William Blake

Holm oak

There is a beautiful park near my house, the Villa Borghese gardens. In 1605, cardinal Scipione Borghese started transforming a vineyard into this masterpiece we still enjoy today. This beautiful holm oak is on what used to be the Pincian Hill, now called the Pincio, one of the many areas of the park. I often sit by its base to read, and sketch. It never ceases to inspire me, I never tire of looking at it.

On the difficulties of breeding on a beach

The population of Kentish plovers, a small European wader, is declining throughout its breeding range. As is the case with all disappearing species, the causes are habitat loss, predation, hunting, and in the case of this little guy, disturbance. The Kentish plover, Charadrius alexandrinus, makes its nest in a small depression on sandy beaches by the sea or by inland lakes or estuaries. Both sexes brood the eggs and attend to the chicks. However, not many of the young make it into adulthood. Being trampled by people or predated by dogs, foxes, or crows is a serious problem for this small bird. Conservation measures include fencing the areas where they breed, providing small cages to protect the nest, moving the eggs to a safer place. In the US, there's a very similar American subspecies, the Snowy plover. It, too, faces the same threats as its European cousin.

Hippos

There are only two species of hippopotamuses: the common hippo, and a smaller one, the pigmy hippo. I might never see them in the wild, but the zoo of Rome houses both species and sometimes I visit them there. I love watching them in the water, especially the common hippos. They are so graceful, so fast and agile in this medium, it is really not surprising they share the same common ancestor as whales. I've sketched them more or less to scale with some Copic Multiliner sepia pens. I'm really enjoying these pens, they have a nice smooth feel.

Hawk moth

I found this little beast on a trip to Corsica and took it home. I think it's a Convolvulus Hawk-moth. It's quite large, with a wingspan of about 10 to 12 cm. It originally comes from the UK, but it's spreading in Europe and Africa.
It's very pretty and its greyish hues make it perfect for graphite.

The beauty of bird eggs

These are Common quail eggs, with different hues and markings.

Birds belonging to burrow or hole nesting species tend to have white eggs. Birds nesting in the open, however, need to camouflage their eggs, and they do so exquisitely. First, the ground colour is acquired as pigment during shell formation. Later, superficial markings are added. Brown and black speckles and blotches are the result of the breaking down of blood pigments. Bile pigments produce green and bluish hues. Some species, such as Grebes, depend on mud and rotting nest vegetation to stain and splotch their whitish eggs. The largest egg is a Yellow-legged gull, a subspecies of the Herring gull found in Northern European countries. The middle one is a Common quail and the thirds a European starling.

Merry Christmas

This is my latest kitty, very cute and acute, especially when he's up to mischief. I realized the drawing from a few snapshots and lots of observation. Photos make good references, but sometimes give little information on light and dark and many other details. It was really fun.


Merry Christmas everyone!

Olives

A few days ago I helped some friends pick olives and was amazed by the range of colours they display: different hues of yellow, green, red, purple and blue. A feast for the eyes.

I brought home a few twigs, only to discover they dry up too fast to do a good study. And to learn that is why you have to bring your olives to the oil-mill within days of picking.

Here are the two species we picked. I know the top one is called rosciola, due to its reddish hue, I presume (rosso = red). I don't know about the bottom one, not surprising, giving there are about 500 autochthonous species in Italy.

Chestnuts

I'm filling a small handmade sketchbook with botanical sketches and the odd recipe. Here's the latest, a chestnut puree dessert, made with chestnuts we harvested ourselves!

A butterfly

I find myself drawn more and more to drawing insects. They are so alien, colorful, and incredible. This is a scarce swallowtail, it's quite common in central and Southern Europe, even in cities as busy as Rome. It died in my courtyard and I coloured it with ink and Tombow markers, then partly cut it to set it free.

Tabacchiere peaches with recipe

This is the right season to go out looking for unusual fruits and veggies. Not only you are likely to discover tasty novel foods, but you can find beautiful subjects to sketch.

These peaches are grown on the slopes of the Etna, Sicily's largest volcano. They are known as tabacchiera peach, snuffbox peach, due to the flat shape and small size, but also go by the name of Saturn or donut peach, for the same obvious reasons.

Here goes a quick recipe: Pierce the peaches a couple of times with a fork, sprinkle with a little raw cane sugar, crushed amaretto cookies, and a little olive oil. Let them brown under the grill for a few minutes and serve with ice cream. Delicious...

Enjoy!

Norway lobsters

I find nature and its creations utterly fascinating, and more astonishing than the creatures our best science fiction writers ever invented. On a trip to a local fishery I bought a few Norway lobsters, Nephrops norvegicus, and ended up sketching one. The Norway lobster is widely distributed in the Atlantic of northern Europe, but I guess most people, just like myself until two days ago, know little about it. These alien creatures have the ability to discard a limb to escape danger, and regrow it later. They don't reach their full body lenghth of 25 cm by growing gradually, instead they periodically shed their outer shell and absorb water to expand. Exposure to calcium salts present in the water hardens the new soft shell and they won't grow again until the next molt.

Females reach sexual maturity at 2 1/2 years of age, males at 3. After mating, a large female lobster can produce thousands of eggs, which she will carry around for up to 9 months. The eggs are attached to the hairs of the pleopods (illustration, a), the swimming legs found on the abdomen. The four pairs of front legs are used for walking, cleaning, excavating, catching prey, etc. While being carried around on the pleopods, the eggs hatch into prelarvae, and the female eventually releases them into the currents. Free swimming larvae, called zoeas, undergo various stages (illustration, I, II, III, IV), molting between each one, to turn into tiny replicas of adult lobsters (illustration, b). During the IV stage, zoeas start settling on the bottom and occupy burrows previously excavated by adults. They'll remain inside them for about a year to escape predators.

Wanda

Meet Wanda, an unrecoverable hoodie who's made the local wildlife centre in Rome her new home.

Recently, she's been promoted from mascot to official gatekeeper and now works with the rest of the team, raising awareness for the environment and teaching people to be kind and respectful of other animals...

The Hooded crow, Corvus cornix, is very common throughout Europe and as the opportunistic feeder it is, is spreading fast in town.

Watch her at work here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9B7s7LdNlg