The world brightened quickly around noon when the morning fog finally burned off. As soon as it did the dogs and I set out for a much needed sunny hike. Water was still running off our high hill and down the small gully in the middle of Old Thompson Road, swirling and dancing over small waterfalls as it sought lower ground. Water droplets still on branches sparkled in the sun. It was warmer than I thought it would be and not as windy as predicted, so within the first five minutes my fleece jacket had to come off. Whew! I also headed for the pine woods to let the shady coolness counteract my decision to wear Smart Wool long underwear! The soggy needles and leaves were spongey. They made no sound as we wound our way through the trees with a Downy Woodpecker leading the way, flying from tree to tree. We crossed a swollen Meetinghouse Creek, and headed up the other side. On the highest hill I accidentally relocated an interesting old sourwood tree and was just as surprised and excited as the first time. The trunk has deep furrows broken into fat chunks of bark. The branches twist and turn and cross each other in a beautiful pattern, and seen against today's blue sky it was quite striking. And it was just what I wanted to draw. I walked all around and found a good angle. I put my waterproof pad down, folded my fleece jacket and put that down for added comfort. I settled down to work. Out came my box of pens. I carefully picked out one of the new ones and then located my reading glasses in my pocket. Then... Something was missing. My journal. There was no journal in the backpack. I'd had it out for Monday's post and didn't put it back into the backpack. Geeze. Nothing to do but admire the tree a while longer then pack up and go home. By the time we got back to the house the wind had really picked up. I retrieved my journal from the kitchen and wandered back in our woods a while. The wind kept getting stronger. It really roared! I finally decided I should NOT sit around under old trees in high wind. Sure enough, within five minutes after leaving the hill I heard a loud crack and turned in time to see a huge branch fall out of the top of one of the large oaks and land with a heavy THUD right where I'd been considering sitting. OK! Good decision. For safety's sake I sat myself down in the driveway, one of few spots around Middlewood with no trees, to draw part of a large branch that had fallen in the woods due to the jelly fungus that covered it. The fungus grows on dead branches during summer, looking like dry, mushroom-like scales. When the winter rains begin, bringing days of rain instead of just hours, the jelly funguses plump up into a slimy, jiggly, heavy mess. They grow too heavy for the dead branch to support. Crack! down they come. On closer inspection I found another fungus (Honeycomb) and various lichens on the small piece I'd picked up. I've always been fascinated with lichens and have wondered about the weird jellies I see in our woods, so this was a particularly fun day...first hiking, then drawing, and last but not least, learning.
Julia Rothman's "Book By Its Cover" blog regularly features some incredible things bound in book form. But these from German Illustrator Lars Henkel simply leap…
This is my first contribution to the Sketching in Nature group and I'd like to introduce myself. The main medium I've worked in for many years is gouache. For a full size painting (a full sheet of watercolor paper) I spend anywhere from six to ten weeks. For some of my botanical studies, done strictly from life, I work off and on during the plant's life cycle and if I happen to miss a phase I put the painting away until that phase comes around the next year. Needless to say, after doing that for many years I began to look around for an alternative way to record the things around me that didn't require such a committment of time. That's when I was lucky enough to run across Kate's watercolor pencil workshop in early 2008. I will never give up gouache because I'm an addict when it comes to detail, but I've also developed a love of watercolor pencil and pen and ink. I had to give up art entirely for well over a year because of near blindness, and as my vision began to return and I reconnected to the internet, what was one of the first things I ran into? -- Kate's Journaling class! What an inspiration she and my classmates have been. Starting January 1st, 2010, I began a journal dedicated to nature subjects and these three images are selections from it. I've enjoyed browsing through all your posts here and I'm looking forward to seeing more.
Explore MDTC Art Department's 2729 photos on Flickr!
Selected pages from the Spätgotisches Musterbuch des Stephan Schriber, a manuscript which appears to be some kind of sketchbook, belonging to a fifteenth-century monk working in South-West Germany, where ideas and layouts for illuminated manuscripts were tried out and skills developed.
Enjoy a collection of 100+ Concept Art from Studio Ghibli Kiki's Delivery Service, featuring Character, Layout, Prop & Background Design. A young
Selected pages from the Spätgotisches Musterbuch des Stephan Schriber, a manuscript which appears to be some kind of sketchbook, belonging to a fifteenth-century monk working in South-West Germany, where ideas and layouts for illuminated manuscripts were tried out and skills developed.
Tree Abraham is a designer/doodler in New York with a busy sketchbook that is both expressive and experimental.
I’m at a relative’s home and drew this (lil cousin was drawing) He thinks Medkit is a princess lol
Study of neuronal morphology. Ink and colour pencils.
Ines Jakovljević's drawings are intensely personal and yet creepily inhuman.
Explore ginettesqulette's 1504 photos on Flickr!
An ‘A’ grade, AS Level Ceramics Coursework project by Shawn Kwan, of Mayfield School, United Kingdom. The level of detail and insight provided by Shawn makes this a valuable read for anyone considering undertaking a ceramic project themselves.
It must be nice to have a really great sketch book. I've always had big plans for one but, no matter how great my intentions, they always end up as unfinished, coffee-stained disasters; shoved to the back of my shelf sulking in the plain embarrassment that comes with being quite so awful.
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Explore art-creature's 1000 photos on Flickr!
Noodler's flex pen and watercolor... Our old cabin is surrounded by walnut trees; for years I'd watched the woodpeckers build their homes above my head, knowing that they'd hollowed out the tree beside the deck. This winter, our howling winds took out the top of this one, and I dragged it up onto the deck to sketch. This particular nest had two entries...the one near the bottom of the photo probably led to another hollow like the one between these two... Our friends were out cutting wood--another tree that had fallen near the cabin--and Joseph was fixing the broken window, so I sat on the deck and sketched.
