Nature Journal

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Inktober Week 3

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Day 16 – Angular – I was just starting to draw a Great Egret I photographed at Eagle Creak this month. As I was playing with the lines (in nature they so often replicate, lending a beautiful symmetry to the animal or bird), ta da – Angular happened by accident. I think it has the most likes of any on my Instagram.

Day 15 – Weak – I could not get the image to work, so I started doing my quick 10 second drills to loosen up my hand. I was flipping through Google images and when I was done, these made me laugh so hard that I shared them.

This was a hard work week, so I went off script in order to keep inking. Other than these first two, I did not follow the prompts and just had fun and used the time to loosen up.

Hispid Corbis Rat / Red-Breasted Nuthatch study (saw my first one on our feeder this past week! Had to commemorate a “lifer”. The rat was from Google images.)

Below is my first ever fan art. Then the ravens took 2 days with the first being for the initial sketch.

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I love James and Margaret, who have made a backyard habitat in CA their home. The “caretakers” of that space give this loving pair of ravens food puzzles on their deck and interact with them in very fun ways. I have been wanting to sketch these guys for some time and took this opportunity. I think they would look very great in paint! Next project!

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Corvids are extremely smart birds and I have learned so much from James and his only love, Margaret. It is amazing to watch their story unfold. You can follow them and their fellow inhabitants of that backyard on Instagram or Facebook.

 

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Inktober Week 2 – Compiled

For the word, Precious, I had to do my newest nephew, Isaac. However, I am not confident with portraits, so I worked him up in graphite pencil first. Then inked it. I plan to keep working on more portraiture, because it is such a challenge with great reward when you get it right.

Flowing is in process. Cruel was next. I did a fast sketch just for fun and have no intention of reworking it. I did not like this prompt until I thought of how cruel it is when birding to discover a wonderful one was behind you the whole time.  In this case, a Sandhill Crane. I shared a throwback to last year to show I really can draw these birds. Cartoon style is still a struggle for me.

I skipped Whale and went straight to Guarded. This was a very technical drawing, so I sketched it first, then inked it.

We ended on clock, which did not inspire me, so I skipped it. I am batting a low average this Inktober. 5 last week and 4 this week. We will see if we can’t beef that up next week.

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Inktober Week 4

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The above image was my favorite for this week. I was trying new things – this was my niece having a hard time of it when she found her daddy’s jeans hanging on the line. It is one of my favorite moments. Faces and emotions are not easy to capture. I vow to work this next year to do better with them.

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Inktober Week 3

I am pushing myself to try different styles – quick drawings, purposeful drawings, tiny lines, emotion on faces, events.

Following the prompts of Inktober has been great at stretching my creativity and I hope expanding my range (depth and breadth.)

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Inktober

Inktober is an international challenge to artists to pick up a pen and practice ink drawing daily and share it online. I use the time as a yearly exercise to improve my observational skills with 10 second sketches, but this year I am also doing a few finished pages in my new nature journal. 

Above is my ink of a blue heron. Below I added light watercolors. Later I added notes and observations in the whitespace.