Nature sketching beach walk.

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks "---John Muir

Objective:

To travel lightly and be open to nature sketching and try out some gesture sketches in my field notebook. To leave technology behind and rely just on my own field journal to record what I found. 

Observations:

My walk started on May 2, 2014 at twelve noon down the steep steps at Mesa Lane in Santa Barbara California. With the high noon sun straight above me I was prepared to hike a coastal hike with only my backpack full of the very basics, a bag of sharpened prismacolor pencils, my 5x8 inch blank paged sketch book, a mechanical pencil, a few hardness of the graphite pencil, sturdy walking shoes on my feet, a few trail bars a water bottle and my sunscreen. 

Within a few steps of the beach I found some mussel shells, beautiful and blue, and wanted to capture the color of the shell and the sand. Plopped down next to the mussel was a live sea snail still holding onto some brown kelp. I tossed the live animal back in the ocean, then carried the mussel shells down the beach to the perfect spot to sit and sketch.

I heard that the days you leave your camera and phone and ipod behind are the times when the most wildlife appears...that was true again for me today as I saw several whales cruising by spouting from the shore. Migrating north to Alaska for the summer. A couple groups of common dolphin pods cruising the opposite direction. People were walking along the shore oblivious to the faint spouting out in the ocean while walking their dogs and chatting with friends.  How much do we miss when we are caught up in the daily life of computers and cell phones and schedules. 

I plopped down again near the whales to observe them for a bit and took the time to do a series of gesture sketches of sea birds and humans as well. Not worrying about what the images look like but to get a feel for the movement of the people and the animals. 

An interesting harbor seal that couldn't get enough of the paddle boarders splashing in the water, and endless dog walkers and beach lovers out to enjoy the sunny day. I spent some time observing a beautiful mussel shell I saw sitting in the tide and took some time to take in the joggers and my attempt at getting a good enough bird observation without binoculars or a guide book. I am not sure if the tiny shorebirds I found were plover or sandpiper but there was definitely flocks of curlew cruising by.

This walk made me realize how much sea bird identification is a mystery to me.  I came home with my sketches realizing I needed to add much more detail in the birds to get a proper identification.  Was it a plover or a sandpiper? I plan on spending much more time in the field with my sketch book. What a great way to celebrate this planet we live on.   

Species List:
grey whales, common dolphin, a harbor seal, curlew, brown pelican, mussel shell, lobster molt, sea snail species, shore birds possibly plover or sandpiper, tern species, many other shore birds...

Drawings and Sketches:

Fall Colored Flowers in mixed media

  "Flowers are those little colorful beacons of the sun from which we get sunshine when dark, somber skies blanket our thoughts." ---Dodinsky

On my search for something to brighten up the house for the fall,   I stumbled upon this lively bouquet at Trader Joes. I was immediately drawn to the bright fall colored palette with the canary yellow center of the group.   I brought the flowers home, put them in a vase and realized was taller than my eyes could see.  So I put it on the floor at eye level, soaking up its beauty, while I  brainstormed how I wanted to paint this piece.  

The intensity of the color of the flowers reminded me of another piece I did of a cactus flower with a blue sky.  I started that piece on a white bristol board with a watercolor wash for the bottom layer of the sky and the blossoms, and then went over it with colored pencil which really made the color pop. 

For this piece I decided to try this same mixed media affect with my Canson drawing paper pad and began sketching the preliminary drawing directly on the paper. I have done watercolor mixed media with colored pencils before but never with this brand of paper. 

The first photo is the start of the watercolor done on the drawing paper.  I used bright colors to bottom paint under where I wanted the flowers to be extra vibrant. 

The second photo is the completion of the prismacolor colored pencils layer on top of the watercolor. Colored pencils on top of white paper can take a while to get the intensity of color I was looking for.  I like the effect of the intensity of the color, but the canson paper tended to buckle up and bubble so if I were to do this again I would be tempted to try a bristol board or a heavier paper.

The third and fourth images of this mixed media piece I decided to come back in with pen and ink line drawings on top of the last image.  I have a complete shot and a somewhat close-up of the center flowers.  I hope you like it and can't wait to hear any comments.  

Fall Colored Flowers. 9" x 12", Mixed Media.