House Finch Farmington

Although we get a few species of song birds here in Florida, we saw the most variety when living in Farmington, WV.  During our time there, I took loads of photos of the birds at our feeders.  The feeders were placed right outside my window where I spent most of my time.  It was always a joy to watch!

This watercolor sketch is from one of my many photos.

Handbook, waterbrush, mixed brands of watercolors in portable palette made from a water crayon tin.

Gone Fishing

Two of my sons were planning to go fishing and while my youngest was prepping his new tackle box, I started sketching a few fishing lures from my own stash.

All these lures are those I have in my own arsenal; however, I never use them.  I have yet to really master how to use them so instead I stick with my old standby, the rubber worm.  Maybe one day I'll learn to use the other things I have but for now they make nice sketching material :-)

Strathmore Visual Journal (watercolor) / Micron 01 / Zig Watercolor Brush Markers / Daniel Smith Watercolor

I chose to use the Zig brush markers due to their vibrant colors and only a little watercolor mainly for the shadows.

Frequent Winged Visitor

It took awhile to see this fellow before I could identify what kind of bird it was.  Learned he's a Northern Mockingbird.

He comes to our Mushroom Water Fountain to drink.......a couple to few times a day.  I've seen other birds bath in the middle mushroom but this guy only drinks from the fountain.

Handbook / Micron 01

Florida Eye Candy

Although I've always loved the mountains, I have to say that Florida is my favorite with surrounding natural sights.  Love the landscape, the lakes, the various different birds, etc. we don't see up north.

Handbook / Daniel Smith watercolors / Micron 01

More Facial Feature Practice for Granddaughter

I forgot to share this from last week.  Started out as just a visual on eyes for my granddaughter but then took it further.  Looks strange, I'm sure with the top of the head.........LOL.  Worked using a mirror.....hair pulled back.

The following are just a few more pages practicing nose and mouth.  Both pages using the stillman and birn Zeta journal.

I'm turned ever so slightly when viewing in the mirror.

Filling an area on another page in the S&B Zeta.

Back to Facial Feature Practice

Although Travis wasn't thrilled at having his picture taken, he allowed me to take a profile photo of him last night for me to practice from.

There is definite room for improvement but overall I really think it looks like him.  The chin should be protruding out a bit more than I have it and a few other slight tweaks (like the eyebrow area) I could do.  But I've decided to leave it as is for my personal learning example.

Even with what I personally see as areas to be improved upon, I am rather thrilled by the results.

Maybe after I feel more comfortable with faces, I won't feel so intimidated when working people into sketches, feeling the need to leave them faceless.  But then again, those figures are so small that it would be difficult to do anything except suggest features anyways.  At least my goal is to eliminate or face that fear factor I experience working with people.

This was worked in the handbook with a rougher surface.  Although blending wasn't as nice as I'd achieve on the Zeta paper surface, this roughness to me gives an interesting look and feel to the finished results.

2H, 2B, and 6B pencils

Change of Pace

Although I'm still practicing with facial features, I took a break to do something else.

This first is using primarily the side edge of a 6B pencil capturing this tree I see every day looking out the Florida room door.  Worked on the last page in my Stillman & Birn Zeta journal.

Can't emphasis enough how much I love the Zeta paper for graphite work.....especially when blending.

This next is worked in the Handbook using W&N watercolors and a Micron 01 pen

My Son, Travis

This started out simply practicing the eyes with face tilted.  I kinda got carried away and went as far as you see here.

Stillman & Birn Zeta; Mechanical Pencil; 2B Pencil; Paper Stump

Travis will soon be 28 years old and  almost three years later is filled out a bit more in the face.  In 2013 he was quite thin.  The results look more like he is today being older.

It's far from perfect and seeing on screen I see areas I need to work on..........but.........I think it definitely resembles him and quite happy with the results.

I actually took a ruler and measured for placement of his features.  I definitely had to do that with the tilt of his face to get it to look right.

More Facial Feature Practice

I'm still working on facial features to include trying to position everything right.......at least based on general guidelines.

No models used........just adding features as I go along from imagination.  Next I'll work from an actual photo of one of my sons.

Stillman & Birn Zeta; mechanical pencil; paper stump for blending.