Nature Sketchbook Retrospective

 

8/14/22 Steller's jay with accurate proportions

Over the past few years, I’ve shown sketches I’ve made of birds (and the occasional persistent squirrel) that have dined at our feeders or in our backyard. Almost all of those small sketches were done in a pocket-size Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook that I keep by the kitchen window. The sketch on the first page is of a junco made on Nov. 26, 2018, which must have been the first year we put the feeders up. For a brief period in 2019, I tried the book as my secondary daily-carry sketchbook (the role now filled by Uglybooks and before that, Field Notes), but I didn’t like its bulkiness. I put it back on the kitchen counter, and it has stayed there ever since.

3/4/22 scribbles of a Bewick's wren

Now, nearly four years later, its 92 pages are almost full. Many pages show nothing more than scribbles trying to capture quick gestures that didn’t amount to much. Small birds, masters of grab-and-go, give me only a few seconds at a time. But it’s fun to thumb through the book now and see my progress, which isn’t necessarily progressive, of course. Just as I had observed more than a decade ago when I first started drawing, my skills are still being built with one-step-forward, two-steps-back.

The Steller’s jays are visiting us at meal times more regularly again this summer. By “meal times,” I mean ours – we eat lunch and dinner on our back deck whenever weather permits, which has been almost daily for several weeks. When the jays see us out there (or even before, when we’re still prepping meals in the kitchen and have the back door open), they wait for us in the trees or, more impatiently, on our deck railing. They know we will eventually put peanuts out for them. They are endlessly entertaining. Occasionally after gorging on peanuts for a while, they will fall into post-prandial preening or resting on our railing, which gives me the best opportunity to sketch.

12/11/19 first attempts at Steller's jays

My first sketch of a Steller’s jay in the small sketchbook is dated Dec. 11, 2019, which was before we started feeding them peanuts and giving them reason to stay longer. When I don’t have enough time to truly see, I’m drawing mostly from memory or even imagination, relying on my brain’s symbol for “bird shape.”

Over time, the repetitive sightings and practice combined with occasional treats of longer durations result in higher accuracy. At the top of this post is a recent sketch that is one of the most accurate to date in terms of Steller’s jay proportions.

When I look back at the older sketches, I see mostly generic bird shapes. It’s rewarding to watch them change into better renderings as I eventually learn to see them instead of think them.

4/1/22 Bewick's wren

12/25/18 Early sketches in this book are mostly symbols of bird shapes

8/4/21 When we started feeding peanuts to the jays, I had a little more time for each gesture, but not enough to capture proportions accurately.

8/4/21

9/9/21

9/9/21

9/25/21 This jay generously gave me many minutes to observe closely.

I keep the small Stillman & Birn sketchbook on the kitchen counter right next to our local bird identification books, binocs and, of course, colored pencils.

“Our” Jays

 

9/5/22 Steller's jay (Prismacolors in Uglybook)

Unlike last year when they began showing up in our yard as early as May, “our” Steller’s jays didn’t begin visiting until July this year. Sporadic at first, now they show up almost every time we are out on the deck for meals (which has been nearly daily for lunch and dinner this summer). I keep the plastic bin of peanuts on the railing while we are out there. After they’ve finished eating the handful I’ve put out for them, often they will sit patiently on the deck railing waiting for more, only a few feet from us. Sometimes they are less patient: They have pecked hard on the bin until it falls off, complaining about the poor service.

Over the summer, I’ve made numerous gesture sketches in graphite when they’ve sat for me because a pencil is always handy. I’ve been wanting to make a color sketch, but I knew that if I got up from the table to go get my colored pencils, that would be the end of their sitting. I decided to select a few colors and put together a compact kit that I could grab every time we went out there for meals. For the sketchbook, I planned on using an Uglybook containing black paper, which I thought would reduce the amount of time I would need to capture the color.

7/25/22

7/25/22

Days went by when the birds ate plenty but didn’t stop to pose for me. Finally on Labor Day, my patience paid off. Two jays showed up, so my sketch at top of post may be a composite of both, and it took a few sittings of a couple of minutes each to grab various details until eventually I finished. I paid my models for their time.

8/21/22

8/21/22

I’m pleased to put my black Uglybook into action even before nocturne season! I’d also like to try using a dark blue Uglybook, so I put one in the kit, too, for the next time the sitters cooperate.

8/22/22

The paper looks blue here, but it's black.

Rickshaw Bagworks Coozy case. The Uglybooks are inside
the main zipped compartment.

My handsome model on 7/25/22

Oh, it looks like I now have 8 Uglybooks in rotation!
Sticker flair from the Etsy shop Ernest Theodore.

Perched

 

9/25/21 Steller's jay

Ever since we started feeding Steller’s jays in our backyard, they have learned to perch on the deck railing and look into our kitchen door when they hear us prepping our lunch, just to remind us to bring the peanuts. Since we had fed them plenty on this day and had already gone back into the house, they were fat and happy at this point. Yet this one remained on the railing, no longer looking through the door but simply enjoying his post-prandial lethargy. He was only a few feet away.

Through the screen door, I had a perfect view for several minutes – the most leisurely drawing opportunity I have ever been given by one of these lovely jays. Maybe he was thanking me for all those peanuts.

Backyard Visitors

6/16/22

 Other than the Steller’s jays we fed regularly last summer and the usual small birds, we don’t see much wildlife in our backyard (and we’ve been disappointed that “our” jays haven’t been visiting as often this year). Two recent visitors, however, were unexpected delights.

The first was a small brown bunny, who sat for quite a while in the middle of the yard. Although we have seen this type of rabbit fairly often on our neighborhood walks the past couple of years, they rarely visit our yard: We don’t grow anything good to eat. I’m sure they have better pickins’ in our neighbors’ gardens. Maybe this bunny knew we didn’t have pets, so it could take an easy break.

7/6/22

More entertaining was the trio of raccoons that showed up one evening at dusk. Two of them noisily got it on, wrestling and rolling around the yard. The weird noise they made was familiar, but I didn’t realize until then that it came from raccoons. The third lazily lounged nearby the amorous couple but discreetly faced away from them as it scratched itself long enough for me to sketch. They all seemed aware of our quiet presence on the back deck but paid us no mind.

Backyard Diners

 

9/9/21 Steller's jay

Nearly every day this summer, we’ve been having our lunches out on the back deck. Most days, our neighborhood Steller’s jays join us: When they hear us through the open kitchen door prepping our lunches, they stand on the deck railing, quietly waiting. They know we’ll be out soon, peanuts in hand. We’ve seen as many as four at a time at our makeshift feeder.

Once in a while, our local squirrels try to get in on the action. We don’t make an effort to feed them, but they and the jays seem to coexist in a non-hostile manner, so we don’t mind if they grab a few peanuts for themselves.

9/9/21 Our local squirrel

Meanwhile, Greg and I are busily grabbing, too – I, my pencil; he, his camera. Some cold and rainy day this winter, I’ll probably use one of his photos to draw a squirrel or jay, wistfully remembering these lovely summer days that are likely to end soon.

9/9/21

9/11/21

Backyard Redux: Durer Primary Triad

 

7/4/21 Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer pencils in Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook

When I wrote about looking for a CMYK-based primary triad in the Faber-Castell palette and showed a sketch made with Polychromos, two readers requested seeing the Albrecht Durer triad. My first thought was that the triads would be the same – oil-based Polychromos and water-soluble Durer palettes are designed to be identical, and most hues do match closely – so what would be the point? But of course, the colored pencil geek was tickled to oblige.

Cadmium Yellow (107), Middle Purple Pink (125) and Phthalo Blue (110)

Rather than simply pulling out the same colors I’d found in Polychromos, I started from scratch and examined the Durer palette with fresh eyes. Cadmium Yellow (107) and Phthalo Blue (110) still both seemed to match the model Prismacolor triad (Process Red, Canary Yellow and True Blue) most closely, but this time I chose Middle Purple Pink (125) for the Process Red hue. Middle Purple Pink was an alternate I had considered when I was picking out the Polychromos triad, but I ended up choosing Fuchsia that time. It would be interesting to see how the different “red” would change the triad. For the darkest shadows, I used Dark Indigo (157).

Unlike the sweltering day that I had made my Polychromos tomato, it was a lovely 73 degrees with a breeze on the back deck when I sketched the backyard again. With harder Durer pencils, it took me a bit longer to build up enough layers of color, but as far as the triad goes, I think the three hues worked together well. In fact, I think the cooler Middle Purple Pink is a better choice than Fuchsia as a primary “red.”

Below I show an image of the sketch before spritzing. Somehow the drama of the spritzing moment didn’t seem as high with Durers as it does with Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelles; the higher the pigment content, the greater the change when activated with water. Luckily for me, the spouse guy was in the kitchen just as I was about to do the magic, so I was able to ask him to capture the moment on video. (It’s a three-handed job, and when I’m out urban sketching, I usually have only two. Using my back-deck studio does have benefits.) To view the video, please see my Instagram post.

(Another benefit of my back-deck studio is being entertained by many birds. Among the ones I saw and/or heard as I sketched were grackles, hummingbirds, spotted towhees, juncos, flickers, finches, chickadees, Steller’s jays and crows. Ahhh, summer. . . no matter how long it lasts, it won’t seem long enough.)

The pre-spritz sketch

Rising, Setting

 

Several months ago when I was trying to figure out my game plan for downsizing, I had solid reasons to trade our traditional, two-story house for a small condo. The primary one was to cut the square footage in half – less space to heat and cool, less stuff to eventually move to a retirement community, overall less. I also wanted to reduce the wear and tear on my body (and the risk of falling) by eliminating or reducing the number of staircases I use daily. The yardwork was something I had never been interested in, and the relentless maintenance tasks for a centenarian house were burdensome. (I also mistakenly thought that by buying a condo, I could get half the house for about half the price – what a misperception!)

A real estate agent helped me find some condos within my criteria, but none made me even want to go inside to look. I would walk around the buildings, try to imagine the sketching possibilities from the windows, and cross them off my list. And then I would think about the shady, private backyard deck that I enjoy every year from May through September, having meals and feeding jays (not to mention sketching). This past summer, my first without the spouse guy at home, it was comforting to recall all the time we enjoyed out there together, especially during the pandemic. If I moved, I would miss that deck dearly.

Now that I’ve made the decision to stay put and downsize within, my appreciation for all I’ve loved about this house has increased. High on my love list is that I can see and sketch sky colors of both sunrise and sunset without getting out of my jammies. The weeks around the equinoxes are especially convenient – the sun comes up and goes down within sketchable waking hours.

Thank you, old Maple Leaf house, for all you continue to give me every day (and that I hope to enjoy for many years yet). I will not take you for granted.

Mercedes Convertible

 

8/3/21 Mercedes convertible spotted in Maple Leaf

This ‘80s vintage Mercedes is one of my favorite convertibles. I think it belongs to a visitor in our neighborhood, not a resident, as I’d never seen it before. I tried to mix verdigris with lime to capture that particular vintage shade of cool green, but I didn’t quite get it.

Halfway through the sketch, the owner came out, and I was afraid he was going to drive off, but all he did was get something out of the trunk. It’s funny – I was standing just across the narrow street, yet he never noticed me. Maybe it’s like when I’m feeding the jays: If I stand very still, I become invisible.

Working for Peanuts

8/4/21 Steller's jay

Feeding peanuts to Steller’s jays in the backyard while we feed ourselves on the deck has become our regular mealtime entertainment. I put a handful of nuts out on a tray, and within minutes, the pair that lives nearby takes turns grabbing them. They linger for only a second or two at a time, so sketching is hard work. With each grab-and-go, I manage to make a line or two to refine or correct various gestures that I work on simultaneously. Fortunately, the two birds look nearly identical (I think they are a mated pair, but I can’t tell the male from the female), so I sketch them interchangeably as I add more marks to the same sketches.

When I finally got the proportions right on one, I decided to focus on that one to finish. After I got the drawing done in graphite, I went inside to add a bit of blue to the tail and wings while the details were fresh in my memory. I regretted it later because the color obscures some of the form. So I’m also showing here the graphite-only drawing (at right).

Maybe this winter I’ll use one of Greg’s photos of these lovely birds to make a full-color drawing. Or not. Drawing from life is so much more fun (and certainly more challenging). 

It took about 40 peanuts to make these sketches. Now I know what it means to work for peanuts.

Grab and go!

Squirrel Saga

 

10/7/23 I imagine that the squirrel looked like this as it flew off our second-story deck.
(reference photo by Andrey Svistunov on Unsplash)

Squirrels have not always been my enemy. Up until this year, I had always been charmed by their agility, their fat, fluffy tails, and the adorable way they hold their food. I enjoy watching them dart around our backyard or scurry across power lines and up trees. I have sketched many squirrels, both from photos and from life (a few shown here).

Back in February, I had written about the squirrel that had taken up residence inside our roof for several weeks. After trapping the (probable) perp as well as numerous innocent bypassers (including one poor Steller’s jay that we released ourselves) and having exclusion work done, we thought the ordeal was over. It turned out that it had barely begun.

Shortly thereafter, another squirrel took residence for months. Eventually that one left of its own accord, but not without first annoying us with daily noisy skittering, gnawing and damage (tiny holes are visible in our bedroom ceiling). Then over the summer, yet a third moved in.

We had long ago fired the ineffectual, incompetent Willard’s Pest Control when its business model became clear: Why install effective exclusion solutions when a much better income stream comes from trapping and removal ($200 each)?

Seeing squirrels use our lilac tree as a convenient bridge to the roof, we got that pruned (though obviously it was just a convenience – squirrels can scale siding, brick and gutters almost as easily as trees).

1/30/22 Squirrel on our suet feeder (sketched from life)

A new tactic

Rather than find another wildlife removal contractor, our next tactic was to hire a professional roofer. The shabby exclusion work installed by Willard’s had already been chewed through by the current squirrel, so we needed that repaired. To avoid trapping the squirrel inside, I had a plan:

Whenever we fed peanuts to the jays in the backyard, a squirrel usually interloped. Although it was impossible to know for certain, I suspected that it was the same one in residence because of how quickly it appeared with the birds. (What cushy accommodations we provide: Free room and board!)

When the roofer was ready to nail shut the last exclusionary piece, I went out to the backyard and put out peanuts. Sure enough, our probable perp showed up! While it was dining, the access hole was blocked, and no more squirrel in residence!

3/13/19 Squirrel on our bird feeder (sketched from life)

Of course, that would have been too easy. An hour later, we heard squirrely noises again. Somehow, it was back inside.

Three days later, I walked into the bedroom to see a squirrel diving under our bed. It was no longer confined to the roof – it had gained access to the living space. Flinging open the bedroom’s French doors, I wished I’d had my phone and the presence of mind to video the squirrel’s spectacular leap off the second-story deck.

Feeling fairly hostile by now, I half-dreaded, half-hoped that I’d find its little skull cracked open on the pavement below. Of course, it must have landed easily on its feet, because a few minutes later, the squirrely noises in the roof had commenced.

Time for the big guns

The next day, I came upstairs to find the squirrel darting around inside my studio. This time, however, the intrusion was informative: In response to my loud cussing, the squirrel had raced into an unfinished storage area, and then I immediately heard it skittering overhead. A-ha – so the storage area was the access from the roof! Now we gotcha, you little bugger. I slammed the door shut, confining the squirrel to the storage area, which fortunately contains no food.

4/27/20 Squirrel on our bird feeder (sketched from life)

It was time to pull out the big guns. After more research and frustration (three more pest removal contractors disappointed me even before they did any work), I finally found A Wildlife Pro. Extremely knowledgeable about pesky animal behavior, owner Sean also seemed compassionate and humane toward the wildlife that annoyed humans. In addition to inspecting our house and roof thoroughly for problem areas and proposing a plan to address them, he gave us a fascinating education in squirrel behavior (“know thy enemy” is the best strategy).

For example, only female squirrels chew their way into roofs – they are looking for safe, cozy nesting places. Assuming it was safe and cozy, they will also tend to return to the same location litter after litter – so it’s possible that we’ve had the same mama all year. As I know from every nature program I’ve ever watched, a mother mammal will do everything necessary to protect and raise her young, including defending her territory.

Pointing out fresh debris on the lawn on the side of the house where I had heard gnawing, Sean believed that the recent noises were coming from outside the roof, not inside. But then what about the squirrel I had seen in the bedroom and in my studio? It was probably not the same one doing the chewing. It was likely that we had a whole family in residence.

Setting live traps in the storage area, Sean said that if we happened to catch a nursing female, he would advise releasing her until the youngsters were weaned. Otherwise, a nest of young ones would die inside the roof. If it was obvious that the squirrel was not nursing, then he would take her away to be “euthanized.” (I asked why he can’t just drive her a half-mile to Green Lake and let her go? It’s illegal to “relocate” wildlife.)

Trapped in our storage area.

Trapped

Less than an hour after the traps were set, we caught a squirrel. After calling Sean, I took my sketchbook into the storage area to sketch it, but it was thrashing around too much. I stayed with it a while. We had already “euthanized” many squirrels this year, and likely this one would be next. Moments earlier, its only motivation had been hunger, which drove it to the peanuts in the trap. As soon as it was trapped, however, it had left the peanuts uneaten; getting free took all of its attention. Seeing it gnaw frantically, trying to escape, I empathized completely. Trapped and hungry, I would certainly try to free myself before eating.

I’m sorry, little squirrel. I know you are only trying to live your life, just like the rest of us.

10/12/23 Sean installing hardware to keep squirrels out.

Sean carried the trap out to our backyard deck to observe the squirrel in better light. Nearly full grown and probably weaned, it was a male juvenile, he said, not mama, which helped us put the likely story together: When the roofer had completed the exclusion work several days prior, mama had been outside the roof (eating our peanuts in the backyard) and could no longer get back inside, where the kids still were. Ever since, she had been trying to gnaw a new opening into the roof to get back to her kids.

Meanwhile, youngster No. 1 had found its way to the storage area and eventually flew off our deck. Youngster No. 2 was now in the trap.

As we were talking, the trapped squirrel suddenly gave a loud, shrill cry that I had never before heard from a squirrel. A distress call, Sean said. Then another squirrel dashed into our yard: Mama had heard him!

Sean looked at me. I told him to let the squirrel go. He took the trap to the top of the fence between our yard and the neighbor’s and released the little bugger.

We haven’t heard squirrely noises in more than a week – the quietest it has been in months.

Squirrels aren’t going away, and neither are we. We must learn to coexist. More than $4,000 and nine months later, we are learning.

My “Downstairs Studio,” Part 1

 

It doesn't look like a studio, does it?

The small upstairs bedroom that I call my “studio” is where I store most of my art supplies. (It’s ironic, but with all the sketching I do on location, I actually make very little art in my studio except the occasional still life or convenient window view.) But you may have noticed that I’ve developed numerous small kits for specialized needs. In addition to the countless portable kit variations I’ve made for sketching on location, I’ve also put together one kit specifically for night sketching, one for sketching birds and squirrels from the back deck, and another for skyscapitos (sunrise and sunset colors).

These highly specialized kits are driven by practical needs: The subject matter is time-sensitive. The sun ain’t gonna wait for me to run upstairs and pick out materials, and neither are the jays. In addition, in the early morning, I don’t want to disturb the spouse guy sleeping in the room adjacent to my studio by rummaging around for tools. I need to have my specialized kits located in the areas where I use them.

Nocturne kit

Just lately, I’ve been driven by another need: Despite being an avid sketcher, in the evening, I run out of steam. It’s hard for me to work up creative energy when I’m tired. I had gotten into the bad habit of spending evening hours scrolling through social media or bingeing on YouTubes that were neither entertaining nor informative.

In a conscious effort to break that habit, I’ve been looking for ways to practice drawing or otherwise be creatively productive for at least part of that evening time. To be successful, it’s important that I minimize barriers. For example, looking for subject matter around the house requires too much work, and even searching for Google images to draw from can be daunting – I could easily spend the whole evening searching instead of drawing. That’s why I’ve been thrilled to discover Earthsworld’s treasure trove of portrait photography: From a single source, I can randomly or more thoughtfully choose a photo to practice portraiture – a subject that I have been wanting to develop for a long time. I’m motivated to practice, and it’s also easy to find source material.

Skyscapito kit

Having everything accessible downstairs where I tend to spend evening time is also important. Encouraged that I had found an enjoyable and productive way to break a habit, I started wanting more supplies: Bics, Neocolors, a couple of colors of Uglybooks. Whatever I wanted was still upstairs, and my potential laziness to go get them became another barrier I had to eliminate. More materials started creeping down the stairs. My “reading” table, which formerly held only a stack of books and one mugful of pens and pencils that I use in my journal, was turning into a cluttered studio annex. I needed a solution.

Around the holidays when Amazon was bombarding me with gift ideas, one image caught my eye. It was a “complete drawing kit” including a variety of colored and graphite pencils, tools and sketchbooks, and the entire contents came in a zipped-up case like a small portfolio. Having always acquired my art materials ala carte, preassembled kits had been off my radar.

Stellar's jay kit

I started looking at more options, and, of course, I found many – a multitude with slight variations in content and form factor. The contents, likely mediocre, didn’t interest me, but the zipped-up cases did. I wanted one that was neither too big (which would only tempt me to move more of my studio to the annex) nor too small. Since I wasn’t planning to carry it around, weight and bulkiness weren’t primary concerns, but I did want it to be compact. I found one that would require me to be judicious but still be comfortable: Seventy pencil slots plus space for a few non-pencil items seemed about right. At 8 ½ by 11 ½ by 1 ½ inches, it wouldn’t take over my whole reading table.

Made by Pandafly, it was 20 bucks – a price I would have been willing to pay even if the case had been empty. In fact, it was filled with colored, watercolor, metallic, graphite and charcoal “prencils” [sic], sketch pads, pens, erasers, blending stumps, two sharpeners with varying hole sizes, a sandpaper block, a paintbrush, a waterbrush and an interestingly shaped “rub sponge.” A drawing tutorial is also included. Considering the price, this kit has thought of everything.

The zipped-up case is 8 ½ by 11 ½ by 1 ½ inches.

Unzipped

Fully opened

Two sketch pads and a tutorial included.

The most surprising kit item: an egg-shaped "rub sponge."

1/5/23 white charcoal and graphite in Uglybook sketchbook
(Earthsworld reference photo)

Made in China, the materials are not ones I would write home about, but neither are they as bad as I had expected. After giving everything a perfunctory scribble, I used a white charcoal pencil and a 12B graphite pencil to make a sketch, just for fun. Notably, all the kit’s pencils hold the distinction of being the only ones in my vast collection without any kind of branding: Completely nameless pencils are hard to come by!

Aside 1: When I first began looking at these, I was ambivalent about the “complete drawing kit” concept. As a gift to a budding artist, especially a younger one, it’s a convenient, compact, inexpensive way to present a variety of materials to play and experiment with. If the kit had contained truly terrible materials, though, I was afraid they would be discouraging (the issue I had talked about in my recent Crayola post). The items in the kit I purchased, however, are decent enough that they could satisfactorily whet an appetite for drawing without being discouraging. That made me feel better. I do wish, however, that the portfolio could be purchased empty. Filled by an experienced artist for another who is less so, imagine what a nice gift that could be.

Aside 2: A couple of reviews had mentioned the kit having a strong odor, which made me leery. However, the “odor” turned out to be the delicious licorice scent I love about Prismacolor and Arrtx colored pencils! They must all contain a binding ingredient that delightfully evokes Good & Plenty.

Good & Plenty notwithstanding, I didn’t buy the kit for its contents. After taking these photos, I immediately removed everything (I plan to donate them), and then the fun began: Filling the case with my own stuff. Stay tuned for Part 2.

Empty and full of potential!