Ibis, Dessert, and Orchid

After the big disappointment with the Magnolia, I decided to redirect my interest in other things to sketch.

One of the days I went out to check on the Magnolia, these Ibis were in the back near the tree.  I was able to move around a bit without scaring them taking pictures.  These guys seldom come to the back yard so it was a surprise to me to see them there.

Terry went to get some ice cream for us and knowing I'm trying to watch my calorie intake, he found these mini cones.  Nestles makes mini drumsticks and I have always loved their large cones but Publix was out of them.  So he decided to get these from Blue Bunny for me to try. 

Last month I worked a watercolor sketch and a digital sketch of my orchid at the bud stage.  I wanted to work another digital with it in full bloom and got a bit carried away.  This took me hours starting yesterday morning at 10 a.m. and worked it off and on until 4:30 this morning.  Then I picked back up on it at around noon and finished this afternoon.  Today's work was fine tuning after a few hours of sleep and fresh eyes adding deeper values, blending and smoothing edges.

Big Disappointment - Magnolia Flower

So far I have seen and monitored two buds that opened and went through the stages up to all petals turning brown.  There was another bud ready to open as of last night I was so looking forward to seeing as there were no limbs or bunches of leaves to hinder the flower from opening completely.  

When I woke up, I went outside and took a picture of that bud and knew that sometime through the day, it would definitely open.  And I was right.  UNFORTUNATELY, sometime during the day, something attacked this flower leaving petals on the ground exposing an entire side of the center.  Chances are it may have been squirrels as we have an over-abundance of them this year eating up our growing avocados and causing havoc at our bird feeders.  Neighbors are also complaining about how bad the squirrels are this year.  One neighbor in particular has already trapped over two dozen (just from his yard) relocating them to the National Forest near us.

Last page in journal from Fay.  TWSBI 580ALR w/#41 Brown / QoR and DS watercolors.

Watching and Documenting Growth of Magnolia Flower

When we moved into the house we first rented and then purchased, we cut down all but about 6 feet of trunk of a scraggly looking magnolia we didn't think was doing well.  Our plan was to place a bird house on top hoping to attract Blue Birds.  We never got around to building the bird house and the next thing we knew, we had new growth growing from this trunk to include side branches.  Here a few years later we have a nicely shaped magnolia tree.

The type we have is an evergreen variety (Southern Magnolia??) that is showy with dark green leaves on the front or top surface and a gold/bronze color underneath.  The leaves are large and waxy.

We noticed the last two years the tree had actually produced a few flowers only because we saw the seed pods.  We kept missing the flowers themselves.  This year I was determined to see them and starting around mid April, I started locating a few flower buds.  At first I could only find three but have since noticed several others...mainly up higher.

At first it was hard to distinguish between leaf buds and flower buds but didn't take long to notice the difference.  The flower buds are fuller at the base looking like a bulb compared to the leaf buds.

Over the weekend we saw our first flower open in a cup shape.  Come evening I noticed the flower closed up.   Next morning I found the flower was wide open spilling stamens that would catch on the cup shaped petals.  By evening, the petals were turning a Burnt Sienna like color of brown.  My understanding is that the flower life is basically two full days before turning brown and petals finally dropping leaving a cone shape that continues to develop into seed pods.

As of yesterday we had two fully opened flowers - both at the point of petals turning brown.  There is one bud that is getting close to opening and have found several others at the point in this first sketch.

First two using sketchbook with Fabriano Hotpress paper.  TWSBI 580ALR (F) w/#41 Brown ink.  QoR and DS watercolors.

This one using same sketchbook but using TWSBI Eco (EF) w/Urban Grey ink / same watercolors.

Didn't feel like messing with watercolor so I worked this rough sketch in Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook using mechanical pencil .7

State of flower as of last night.

Monthly Theme May 2021 - Gnomes Pencil Sketch

Continuing with the monthly theme of "Items I tend to Collect," I worked this pencil sketch of three gnomes.  I have two sets of miniature gnomes done up in Gnome Gardens.  One garden has gardening gnomes while the other one has four camping gnomes.  

Outside we have a set made of resin that light up automatically at night.  And one other I have is a plush gnome I have inside one of our curio cabinets.

Gnomes are special to me because they remind me of the child's TV show of years past called "David the Gnome."  I used to sit with Travis watching this show and loved the moral lessons the show centered around like sharing, etc.

Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook / Mechanical pencil .7

Working Opal and Jake Three Ways

For my minimum of one digital for the month, I decided to play with different styles using my miniature dog and bear as models.

Using a digital pencil sketch of Opal and Jake, I loaded into a separate Procreate file and worked as follows:

The first is trying to follow how BeeJayDel works his cartoon characters.  He has his ink line sketch and then creates a  layer for a flat base color where he drags and drops a color.  Then he works a layer for shadows and a layer for highlights.  His shadows and highlights are hard-edged.  One of the problems I find myself facing is where and how to place these hard-edged shadows.  He's big in shadows and conservative with his highlights.

The second is using the exact same colors but softening those hard edges of both shadows and highlights.  

The third version is painting the colors in (using gouache brush tool) rather than dragging and dropping a flat base color.  That way the illustration has texture simply by the brush strokes saving a step and additional layer using a texture brush over top of a flat base color.  I also changed the colors used in Jake (dog).

I prefer the soft edges in shadows/highlights so the middle is my favorite of the first two.  Overall, however, I prefer to paint my colors in instead of using a flat base color.  

Pen Versus Paper

For my goal to work at least one straight pen and ink sketch for the month, I started sketching these simple flowers.  I started in one of the hand-sewn books I made year before last using up old stock of Fabriano Hotpress paper.  I've not had issues before but I sure did with this page.

Using my TWSBI 580ALR with fine nib, I felt this drag like I would imagine trying to sketch on waxed paper.  The ink went down very light almost like it had been watered down.  Going back over those lines, the paper then grabbed the ink making areas super dark.  

Not real happy with the results but then I really didn't feel like putting much more effort into this due to the way my pens were behaving on this particular page.  The following two pages didn't give me trouble so I'm keeping my fingers crossed I won't run into this again with the remaining pages in my sketchbook.

Something Totally Different

No idea what prompted me to look into family crests but I spent awhile looking at those, wedding crests, and mono crests.  I was intrigued by those not traditional with shield and armor and started thinking about what I could come up with that fits me.  And rather than designing all new content, I decided to go through my previous sketches and paintings and use some of my favorites.

This would be classified probably as mixed media digital since I used both digital and watercolor sketches to make this up and designed it in photoshop elements.

This represents my favorite bird which is the hummingbird.  It includes my favorite colors which are greens and golds.  Green represents nature and life and golds represent warmth and comfort.  This "crest" represents my love for art, fishing, gardening, and includes my favorite sketching model, Opal.   And the quote is how I live. 

Printed and placed in a magnetic acrylic block using old stock of Arches Infinity Museum Quality Digital Art printer paper (I found another box I hadn't used yet).  My go to for ATC cards before Canon partnered with Arches and that particular paper is no longer available.  This was always my favorite before finding Red River papers.  The one thing I like about the Arches was the texture of the paper.  Red River Aurora that I purchased is more like a hotpress surface but is bright white and makes your prints pop.  Arches Infinity is a softer white with a coldpress like texture.

Monthly Theme for May 2021 - Items I Tend to Collect

Alexa chose the number assigned to "Items I tend to Collect" which covers quite a few ideas I can sketch this month.  I have quite a collection of pens, various trinkets, and stuffed animals to include my miniature bears.  One of my biggest weaknesses is collecting various cases.  

Most normal women get into buying/collecting dozens of shoes and/or handbags but then no one can call me normal.......ha ha.  I find a handbag I like and I'll use it for every occasion until it falls apart.  And shoes......I have two pairs of dress shoes (navy and black), pair of sneakers until they wear out, and pair of flipflops ... given the choice, I go barefoot.  I never got into matching shoes with clothing or handbags like many women do.  And as for clothing, my wardrobe is very simple with maybe a dress or two, t-shirts, a few blouses, and jeans.

Anyways......for my first example for this theme, I went with a few cases I have sitting right here near me that hold mainly pens but also a few other art supplies to include drawing pencils.

Second to last page in the journal Fay made for me / TWSBI 580ALR with Urban Grey ink / QoR watercolors.

Graphite - Magnolia Bud

To start off the month, I worked this graphite sketch.

This is the stage of our Magnolia as of 4/18/21 we tend to miss out on with the few flowers the tree produces.  This year I've been able to spot three buds I'm keeping an eye on.  

Bud with a leaf behind it.  

Mechanical pencil .7 in Stillman and Birn Alpha journal.