California Gnatcatcher in colored pencil

California Gnatcatcher on California buckwheat in colored pencil. Greg Gillson. March 3, 2019.

In February I signed up for an online colored pencil tutorial by Amie Howard Art. It was a single tutorial lesson, following along as Amie drew a robin. Amie is in the UK, so that's a European Robin. And the price equated to less than $20.

The robin tutorial turned out quite well. It is inserted below. So I decided to use the same technique using my own photograph, but include an out-of-focus background. The gnatcatcher above is the result. What you see above may not be the final result. I may keep working on it, pushing the shadows to add shape and contrast.

I chose the gnatcatcher because I had trouble with the white belly on the robin and wanted lots of "white" to work on. The white breast and belly on the gnatcatcher is various grays, cinnamon, blues, and violets. Actually, before I added the background it was a striking piece. I wanted the background to make it as realistic as I could. Yes, I still have a ways to go in that regard.

Robin tutorial. Greg Gillson. February 2019.

I have been working in colored pencil for over two years now. But I probably haven't even created one piece per month. I was drawing in graphite and started ballpoint pen art, as well. Still, only about 70 total "art" pieces in over two years, so not near enough practice. Two years ago my values were poor (very little shadow, so not very 3-dimensional) and I was outlining my drawings like cartoons. Recently my art improved, but Amie's technique created colorful and detailed (if a bit too fluffy for my taste) art that my attempts had been lacking. [See a recent piece: Yellow-rumped Warbler on succulent that I did a week or two before the robin tutorial. It has good shading, but lacks fine detail.]

Switching from Prismacolor Premier to the harder Faber-Castell Polychromos allows sharpening to a finer point. The Polychromos have better light resistance so they should keep their color 100+ years, not fade away in 5 to 15.

I'm still working on it, but Amie's technique has made me excited that I may be able to achieve very realistic-looking work... maybe in another couple years.

Amie Howard Art webpage is here.
Find more of Ms. Howard's work on Instagram @amiehowardart

Colored pencil art: Yellow-rumped Warbler on succulent

In December I photographed a Yellow-rumped Warbler on a succulent at Silver Strand that I thought would make a great colored pencil drawing.

I'm still working on my photorealism technique. This one is getting closer! I think it needs a bit more fine details, though. My plant drawing actually has more detail than what was visible in the reference photo (see below). In order to be realistic I have to get the proportions perfect. Unfortunately, I think I made the warbler's bill a touch too big and the eye a touch too small. That's something that you can't fix after you've started with the color.

Each drawing is just practice for the next one, or so I've been told.

Yellow-rumped Warbler on succulent. Prismacolor colored pencil. 2019. Greg Gillson

Putting in the background.

The flower stalk: first of many layers.

My reference photo.

Nature Journaling with ballpoint pen

A couple of months ago I experimented with ballpoint pen as the drawing medium in my journal. I had been using graphite. That worked well, and I often only used a mechanical pencil with HB lead. If I wanted it darker I would use some darker 4B or others. Then I'd have to spray it with fixative to keep it from smudging. I had also been using colored pencils, but that is an extremely slow medium.

I wish I could remember what article I read or video I watched that was the inspiration for going to ballpoint pen. But when I tried it I was immediately impressed. You can actually use the same shading technique with ballpoint pen as graphite pencil! When you push harder more ink is released, when you let up the pressure the ink is lighter. This is only for ballpoint; other pen types lay down an even amount of ink whether pressing hard or lightly.

Here are some sample pages.

Because the ink will not smudge I can journal on both front and back pages, unlike pencil (until sprayed with fixative).

Nature journal entry

Some people make an initial sketch in graphite pencil and then ink that. But that doesn't save any time over graphite alone. Rather, start drawing lightly in ballpoint pen (expecting that your first marks will be wrong) and just go with it, strengthening the lines that are correct. It is rather freeing to draw without erasing.

Most of my nature journaling is not done in the field as taught. Rather, I photograph profusely and then draw from photos. In the example following I drew from photos, primarily freehand. For the turkey profile and the one running from page to page I used a grid and pencil sketch to get proportions right.

2-page spread.

Here is a close-up. If you click on the photo and look close you may see a few of those stray barely-visible faint "wrong" lines.

close-up

While the above "finished" drawings took a bit more time, the sketches on the following page were done more quickly. Nature journaling is "not about the art." It is your observations and impressions that matter. The sketches bring back to mind. They don't try to perfectly replicate what you saw. Some of the nature journaling instructional books I have use rather quick, crude, drawings. I'm trying to emulate that quick nature and curb my perfectionism. Some of the time, anyway.

Impressions from my pelagic trip.

One downside of ballpoint pen ink is that it will fade, especially if exposed to sunlight. So it's perfect for a journal.

Baird's Sandpiper at Imperial Beach

Scratching an itch. Graphite drawing by Greg Gillson.

On August 27th I was able to locate a previously discovered Baird's Sandpiper on the beach at Imperial Beach, California. It was readily approachable or, rather, it fearlessly approached near me as I sat motionless and as it foraged among the beach-cast kelp on the upper beach. I was able to obtain many photos at close range.

Stepping into a depression. Graphite drawing by Greg Gillson.

One thing many birders noted about this bird was how unusually wide the body of this bird sometimes appeared. The breast feathers flared out widely covering the lower part of the folded wings. I have noted ducks give a very wide-bodied appearance like this, but never other birds. It's something I'll have to pay more attention to. If you think I surely must have misdrawn the proportions, please look at the reference photo below.

I was especially pleased to photograph and draw interesting postures that aren't depicted in bird books that usually show the rather uninteresting "field guide" pose.

"Field Guide" pose.

The identification of Baird's Sandpiper is rather subtle. At first glance it seems to match the field marks of the smaller North American "peep"--Western, Semipalmated, and Least Sandpipers. The bill is about the same length as the head as the Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers. The legs are black as the Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers.  Baird's Sandpipers are a bit larger than the other three, however, if they are seen together.

One noteworthy identification mark is that the wing tips extend quite far past the end of the tail. This gives a very long attenuated look to the rear of the body. In general, birds that migrate long distances have long wings; birds that don't migrate have short wings.

Looking behind. Colored pencil by Greg Gillson.

In the fall of the year, juveniles, such as the one depicted, have rows of white tipped back and scapular feathers. These create a "scaly" appearance to the upper parts. Adults are not nearly as bold.

Baird's Sandpiper breed at the northern edge of land in the Arctic, from northeastern Siberia, Alaska, Canada, to northwestern Greenland. When they migrate south they may be found on ocean beaches. But it is not unusual to encounter them on mountain glaciers. In winter they can be found in the Andes of South America in Ecuador and Chile, but also in lower areas in Bolivia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Panama, and Venezuela. Spring migration is through Central American and Mexico and north generally east of the Rocky Mountains in North America. They are a bit more widespread in fall migration, reaching all the way to the Pacific Coast in low numbers, as this bird.

Portrait: Baird's Sandpiper.

Hidden truth: the mystery of the median secondary coverts

I learned something new about birds while watching a bird drawing instructional video by John Muir Laws (here).

I'll do some research and present it below. But the gist is that the overlapping feathers of the wing--where the feathers closer to the back overlap the next, then the next, and so on, all the way down to the outer primary--doesn't always apply to the median secondary coverts.

Perhaps you would only care about this when drawing the wing feathers. This particular video was about suggesting the wing feathers, rather than drawing everything you know. Feather edges tend to blend smoothly on a bird's body. Wing feathers are stiffer and more individually obvious. As Laws says, however, if you draw every feather individually you'll end up with a bird that looks like a pine cone.

Here, take a look at the wing feathers on this Vermilion Flycatcher (magnified, so there is some pixelation to the photograph).

Notice that the feathers labeled 1, 2, 3 are overlapping from top down on the folded wing? One is on top, it overlaps 2, which overlaps 3. Those are the three inner secondaries, often called tertials when obviously different from the rest of the secondaries. This pattern of overlap is repeated on the primaries and the greater secondary coverts. Watch the above referenced video to easily learn these and additional wing feathers (hidden from view in this photo).

If the greater and median secondary coverts are broadly tipped with white we call them wing bars. Wing bars are only hinted at on this Vermilion Flycatcher. Notice that the greater secondary coverts repeat the overlapping pattern of the primaries and secondaries (top down or left to right in this view). But what's going on with the median secondary coverts? They overlap from the opposite direction (right to left in this view)! Apparently this is the norm for flycatchers, but not(?) other perching birds. Laws also mentioned that the secondary coverts on hawks are more complicated.

I had no idea!

Now I need to go research this.

Where to look?

Reversed covert feathers is not discussed in my ornithology text book, Ornithology in Laboratory and Field, fourth edition, 1970, Olin Sewall Pettingill, Jr. And it's not in Molt in North American Birds, 2010, Steve N. G. Howell. Nor, is it in my go-to reference, The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds, 1980, John K. Terres. Therefore, this information is not in any book in my personal birding library. Reversed covert feathers is not a topic in Wikipedia ("covert feathers"). If it's not in the de facto "Encyclopedia Galactica," then where is this secret knowledge kept? Time to search the index of all knowledge--accurate or not--Google.

"flycatcher median secondary coverts"

"median secondary covert variation"

"median secondary covert overlap"

Nope, it's no good. But I did see reversed median secondary coverts on a Song Thrush and Lincoln's Sparrow photo. That goes against what I heard in the above video. So now I'm confused and interested. I guess I'll be looking closely at bird photographs for a while... even if I am the only one.

I'm going to start at the Slater Museum of Natural History Wing & Tail Image Collection.

After looking at several families and orders of birds it appears that perching birds may all have reversed median secondary coverts, pigeons seemed to have matching order, and ducks appear to have some with the overlap as expected with a mid-wing change to reversed. It is very difficult to tell on many of the wing specimens--some are slightly messed up, others are fluffy so that it is hard to see the edges. I don't know, on some specimens it appears that all the median, lesser, and marginal coverts are reversed.

...

I had this post written in late December and saved to publish about the first of January. Since then, however, my copy of The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling (John Muir Laws, 2016) arrived. On page 12 I found his mention of this mystery in the 1886 Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London in the article: "Observations on the Disposition of the Cubical Coverts in Birds" by J. G. Goodchild. Is this 130-year-old scientific journal article really the most-recent discussion of this anatomical structure in literature? ["Cubical coverts?" That term has zero Google references. But it will when this post is published and indexed!]

Again, unless you are a bird artist striving for super-detailed accuracy--or an avian systematicist, you may never need to know this. But that doesn't mean this phenomenon doesn't exist!

The "Art Weekend"

Marlene and I had a 3-day weekend off, with one caveat--we had to cover emergencies at our mobile home park, should any come up. Our maintenance man was in Mexico on vacation, so Marlene and I had to stay near home, just in case. The forecast was for showery and cool, so this seemed a great time to do something fun at home.

So we planned an "art weekend." Thursday after work we went to the craft store and bought colored pencils and acrylics and canvases and sketchpads and added cheese and wine and crackers and chocolates. On Friday we set up a bunch of how-to videos and began a few projects that we worked on through Saturday.

The mail Saturday brought me The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling, which was my focus. Marlene completed an acrylic painting following an online You-Tube video that guided her through an ocean sunset.

Marlene's painting.

On Sunday we decided to take advantage of the sunny day and have a field trip to La Jolla to observe waves and clouds and the colors of sea and sky, plus plants and animals for ideas. I'm still too slow and uncertain of making field sketches--and perhaps too self-conscious with the crowds of people, so I took lots of photos. Even the out-of-focus photos worked for posture and proportions and coloring for my drawings done later in the day at home.

Sea Lions, Brandt's Cormorants, and crashing waves set the theme for the day.

Scratching your back on a rock feels so good! Made serpentine movements back and forth, bending at shoulders and hips, as flippers waved in the air.

Sea Lions laying in rows. Each row of Sea Lions all face the same direction! Why?

A large bull sunned himself all alone away from all the other Sea Lions. The fur on the sunny side has a golden halo.

Crashing wave. The flatter parts of the ocean reflects the sky. The waves are darker, but turns green as it thins to break. The foam turns from horizontal to more vertical as it climbs the wave.

The rumbling wave is not just white, but many shades of gray.

Looking toward Scripps Pier. The flatter bottom of the cloud is shadowed a purplish gray. The cloud looks very similar to the wave in the above photo.

It's late December and a few of the Brandt's Cormorants are already gathering nesting material and beginning courtship. Notice the clump of newly-delivered green seaweed.

The purplish and greenish-coppery iridescent scapular feathers are outlined in black. The bird throws its head back and flutters its aqua blue throat pouch and makes a gargling wail as it also flutters its wings with tail raised vertical.

Looking west over Shell Beach to the Childrens Pool.

Even in white the feather tracts around the eye, ear covert, and malar are apparent with lines or subtle shading.

A Peregrine Falcon made several passes along the cliffs exciting the pelicans and gulls into flying off. Why is it wasting effort chasing birds too large to be prey?

Very few of the people even noticed the strafing falcon a few feet over their heads. The peachy breast indicates the anatum subspecies.

An Osprey wings by...

Rock Doves (domestic pigeons) are resident here.

A view of Point La Jolla and La Jolla Cove.

A page from my nature journal. Click for larger view.

California Towhee

Here are a couple of photos of an obliging California Towhee from a couple of weeks ago. The dark background on the second photo is especially pleasing, I think.

California Towhee. Imperial Beach, California. November 30, 2016. Greg Gillson.

I'm trying to envision how to draw this lower photo with its brown bird against the stark black background with graphite pencil. It has good contrast so I'd have to push the black as deep as it will go. I want to try it, but don't have the confidence in my abilities right now. I think that with more practice on other drawings I will have the necessary technique and confidence to tackle this challenge in the future. Of course, there's no reason not to redraw this bird several times to get better and better. Hmm...., but not today.

Update: December 30, 2016. I decided to give it a try...

Ruddy Duck sketch

It's been a dozen year since the last time I did any drawing. I've never had any training, but did some acceptable pen-and-ink drawings and pencil sketches in the past. For the past month or so I've been watching videos by Jack Laws and bought some pencils and a sketchbook and have been following the drawing techniques that Mr. Laws discusses on his blog posts and videos.

I did some drawings last week based on photos I took last month, but think I've followed the directions more closely in this recent drawing. I'd never done shading before. Still need some practice with water....

Here is the result (a photograph of my drawing--the original is on white paper, not gray).

Here is the original photograph on which the drawing was based.

Ruddy Duck. Dixon Lake, Escondido, California. November 30, 2016. Greg Gillson.

Oddly, I tipped the bill towards the viewer too much. And I need help with the eye. But it's a start. The rest is practice. I need to draw more to get better, not necessarily learn more techniques. "Each drawing is just practice for the next one," as Laws says.