Sketching at the American natural history museum-The bighorn sheep

Ok it is not precisely a sketch in the wild but it's still a Sketch of a wild subject :)

Gouache on moleskine sketchbook

LOTS of sketching in nature lately...

Magpie and Koala - Alissa Duke

It has been pouring rain over the past week in Sydney, so my Nature sketching has been indoors. The first drawing is of a magpie and was drawn from a photograph.















Yesterday I met Liz (Borromini Bear) and Wendy (Quirkyartist) at the Australian Museum for a day of sketching. There are taxidermied animals and birds in the Search and Discover Room that you can pick up and take to a table.


The subject I chose was a koala. The koala is an Australian icon. I have rarely seen them in the bush as they are always high up in a eucalptus tree and don't move much at all. The Museum was very busy (due to the rain) and the three of us drawing the animals attracted a bit on attention from the museum visitors.

A Fun Chipmunk Finish--Vickie Henderson

It's funny how you set a painting aside while you "think about it" and time goes by.

Lots of time. In fact, May through October went by! But I never put the painting away. It was always looking at me when I entered the kitchen, my temporary studio. (Click on images to enlarge.)

Time is always an issue but as I think about it, the pine needles were also giving me a bit of hesitation. What finally motivated the painting's finish was my desire to complete my Red-shouldered Hawk project which began last February, a wonderful five-month experience observing a pair of Red-shouldered hawks during nesting season. I wanted to include this painting in my sketchbook slideshow.

I began the foreground with a light wash saving the ivy leaves. This was followed with negative painting--painting between the needles to save the lighter colors and create depth. To finish, I added some darker painted needles and a bit of splatter.

Painting is always a learning process for me, part of the fun and challenge. So much of what I do is unplanned and intuitive, even though I do consider how I want to approach the subject. In this case, I discovered that the water used in splattering faded some of my darker needles and I had to repaint them. Next time I might try splattering just before I add the final details and maybe add a bit more pigment to my splatter.

chipmunk study

The resort owner where we stayed Wednesday night at the Lake of the Ozarks was amazed their cat accepted me so quickly and brought something for me to draw. I made us late for dinner sketching it--I was so enthralled by the subtleties of the coloring. And of course I'd been frustrated earlier because I couldn't get close enough to really SEE the little creatures, which were everywhere--problem solved!

Tamius striatus makes a nuisance of himself in many areas--when I looked online for more information, I found dozens of sites telling how to deal with that! I guess the cat figured out one of them...

You'll find some lovely photos HERE and a Wikipedia entry HERE

...or explore more about chipmunks and far, far more in my old mentor, Charles W. Schwartz's wonderful book, below!



Charles was wonderfully talented, encouraging and helpful--I've loved his work since I was a kid! (Who knew there was a new edition of his book? The original one is one of the treasures of my personal library...)

European Otter - Sigrid Frensen

I made some animals this weekend in watercolour. One of them was this cute otter. I used a photo of course. I never did animals before and I actually liked it. So maybe I'll do some again. Could make a nice series perhaps. It's very small. Not bigger than a normal business card.

Chipmunk Progress

Here's a couple of images showing the progress I've made on my chipmunk painting. It's truly an experiment for me and I'm taking my time.
It's actually kind of nice to step away from it and have it waiting for me when I return home. I can see it with fresh eyes and decide what I want to do next, working in small increments.

There are a couple of reasons why its taking some time. First and foremost, there's a lot going on outside in nature this time of year, so I'm juggling all I want to see and do. But the other reason, I'm trying 90# hot press paper for the first time and it responds quite differently than 150# coldpress paper. So I'm taking my time learning its characteristics.

In the meantime, I've seen this chipmunk again. or maybe one of his cousins, while observing red-shouldered hawks. I turned to walk away after viewing the nest and spotted the chipmunk about the same time he saw me. He immediately dove into a hole under the pine mulch and disappeared. And this was the view I captured with my camera.
Chipmunks can be so much fun!

To see more about this visit with the hawks click here. To see my entire series of posts and sketches on these suburban red-shouldered hawks, click here. The first post in the series will appear at the bottom.