Nature journals

[demotlj]

Here are photos of my two most recent pages in my nature journal. Too many black ducks -- I hate trying to get a good black in watercolor. I use alizarin crimson and phthalo green as suggested by Vesper Stamper in her SVS course on watercolor palettes and it works well for small areas but in larger areas it tends to separate. I'd love to know what you all use for black.

[Asyas_illos]

@Valerie-Light these are cute

[Asyas_illos]

@demotlj beautiful work

[Blitz55]

Those are great! I love drawing birds as well, really I love bird watching, if you've never looked through a pair of really really nice Binoculars at birds, it changes everything, it's addicting!

[Kristen Lango]

@Valerie-Light Thank you! And wow! I love these, expecially the cow - I can see the movement of the paint and I love that I can see it's done traditionally, those bleeds and brush strokes are just wonderful. These are really joyful to look at

[Kristen Lango]

@demotlj haha I totally know how you feel! I'd love to meet up and sketch together, but I'm sure we are located far from each other

[Kristen Lango]

@Blitz55 Really lovely! You're so brave for taking on trees in this way - they always overwhelm me. Loving the colors on that third image

[Kristen Lango]

@demotlj Really nice work again! I can see that northern harrier pouncing - you really nailed his pose and the action that birds of prey exhibit

[Blitz55]

Couldn't help but do another hornbill. Weather is starting to get better so at some point I'll be outside drawing from life again.

[demotlj]

@Blitz55 You do beautiful work. Hornbills are fascinating looking birds.

[Blitz55]

Thank you so much @demotlj
And yes they are, from what little I've looked into them I couldn't find a definite reason why they have the huge horn bit on the bill. Sounds like there are theories but nothing concrete, at least from what I read.

[Blitz55]

Some drawing as I walked around in the woods for a few hours.

[demotlj]

I’ve been doing a lot of bird painting now that nesting season is here. This is a juvenile American Redstart in the woods near me. He was really sweet - I love his fluffy roundness.

[demotlj]

I was taking pictures of these cows so that I could paint them and a farmer stopped to see what I was up to. When I showed him my camera, he said, "OK," and drove off but I could see he thought anyone who found cows worth photographing must be a little strange. Would he have thought it less or more strange that my intent was to paint them?

Anyway, playing with ink and watercolor here. I am very fond of E.H. Shepard's style (Winnie-the-Pooh).