Warblers

I painted this postcard of warblers right before checking out John Muir Law's book on drawings birds from the library. I hope you notice a substantial improvement in my birds during the weeks to come. :)

Field sketches

Today at lunch I worked on homework for the second session of Sketchbook Skool.  Cathy Johnson asked us to sketch in nature and also make field sketches if birds. Since I live and work in a small city I used a small park that is part of a traffic island.

Although the house sparrows did appear for me to draw, they weren't quite as accommodating as the ones in the Peabody!

Gowns from the Met's Charles James exhibition

Definitely try to see the Charles James exhibit which closes August 10- it is phenomenal.
Here are my sketches from the show- paint added at home.

Life drawings and a bad person storm

Here are drawings from my Friday life painting session.

I saw the following drawing in the hallway and couldn't resist photographing the title.

Postcards

Here are three more postcards, which I drew yesterday and finished painting today.

Bear traffic jam

Here is a another postcard. This one depicts a bear family that crossed a road in Glacier National Park and caused a traffic jam while my parents were visiting.

Birds for my aunt

While one of my aunts is laid up in rehabilitation, I am trying to send her a painted postcard everyday. Thankfully she is a bird lover, and downy woodpeckers come by her house, where she leaves suet for them.

I also painted her some herons. When I was driving back from visiting her, two herons flew over my car.

Friday evening painting

Even though I stayed just 45 minutes, I did manage to get to and paint the model at my life painting session.

Ancestral homes

This page shows two houses in the upstate New York town where my Dutch ancestors landed hundreds of years ago. Our family owned bother houses but reputedly lost the top house in a dice game.

This parsonage is in the same town, and one set of my aunts and uncles interpreted it for visitors during a special "Stone House" day.

Ducks

While I was sketching ducks in watercolor pencils today, a group of Asian children came up to watch me draw. One girl had a great vocabulary and taught the younger kids words like pencil and colored pencils. Then they guessed which ducks I was drawing.

I learned new things today, too. I had never heard of an Oldsquaw before but I liked his tail feathers!  I also drew a Bufflehead purely because I liked his name.

Not one of my aunts

I made the following drawings at a life drawing class, and realize I would get in all kinds of trouble if I combined this post with the drawing of one of my aunts.  Heeding to caution, here are my drawings from Friday night in their own post.

One of my aunts

I saw three out of my six aunts this weekend.  Here is my Aunt Peg, a loyal blog reader. I painted her while we waited for my uncles to sort something out.

Birds with bonus caterpillar

Here are a flicker and a pheasant I painted at the Peabody today.

While I was painting the pheasant, one girl came up to me and said she hoped I would become a professional artist. I told her that made two of us!

Next up is an adorable caterpillar I saw this morning. I think it must be the Pomeranian of the caterpillar world because it is fluffy and beige with funny ears.  This is the first caterpillar I have found adorable and wanted to pet.

Bird with bonus cow

More birds

Today I drew an Indigo Bunting, a Blue Grosbeak and a sparrow. When the inevitable school groups left my area, one of the kids called out, "Goodbye artist!"