Birds at My Feeder Sketch

November 25, 2009

Last Saturday, this was the scene from my window. Oh how happy I was! You may be thinking, “So what? You have birds that visit your feeder.” This scene however, with a chickadee, a white-breasted nuthatch, and a male downy woodpecker happened at the same time!

99% of the time when I look out the window I either see a sparrow at the feeder or a big stupid squirrel stealing seeds from me. It is excitement when I witness a “non-regular”. To have 3 non-regulars at the same time is big time happiness for me.

I sketched this scene so that at a later time I can thumb through my sketchbook and reminisce on the day when I saw these birds together at the same time. Notice that I make sure to document the date, time and weather conditions. I want to know if there is a connection. My hypothesis right now: The 3 different types of birds are following each other to team up, attacking the same feeder, because it is colder out and insects are less common than free available seed/suet. The birds are going to use a lot of energy keeping themselves alive in the winter. Food/energy source is crucial to survival. I know that the chickadee is known to travel and follow the downy woodpecker, but do they do that in the summer time as well, when food is abundant everywhere? If I witness the same scene in the summertime and document the time, date, and weather conditions in my sketchbook, then I know my hypothesis is incorrect.

My sketchbook helps me learn. You can start a sketchbook too. It is rather inexpensive. The sketchbook may cost you $10 and you can buy a watercolor travel kit for $20. No experience necessary! Why not document what you see and we can learn together.

2 Comments | Artwork, Birds, Nature Sketching, art, chickadee, downy woodpecker, nature, sketchbook, white-breasted nuthatch, wildlife | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by letspaintnature

Let’s Paint the Chickadee!

November 21, 2009

Oh BOY! Do you remember the other day when I had a tiny little chickadee visitor at my feeder? I love him so much that I want to try to capture his uplifting acrobatic personality right on watercolor paper! Here we go, let’s make a watercolor painting of the black-capped chickadee on cold press watercolor paper…

Step 1: I am going to make a chickadee montage painting. A montage is when you take several photos and put them together in one scene. I think displaying the chickadee’s playful poses will help convey his high spirited personality. When doing a montage, make sure you practice your layout on a separate piece of scratch paper. For a good compositional flow, I only chose the poses that would work well. Remember, your composition goal is to keep the viewer’s eye in the painting.

Step 2: I’m just going to concentrate on the big guy. I wet his belly with clean water. Then I loaded my brush with burnt sienna and touched the paper in several spots. I didn’t rub it in. I just lightly touched the paper and let the watercolor paint do its own thing. It’s fun to watch it run.

Step 3: Next, I made a gray mixture by mixing burnt sienna, indigo blue and a touch of sap green. Dilute the paint with water to get a lighter gray. Paint his back and tail, and a little bit under his “chin”. Don’t go crazy, let some paper show through, we don’t want to suffocate the poor thing.

Step 4: With a much less water diluted mixture of burnt sienna, indigo blue, and sap green, paint his black cap and black bib. Do not pre-wet the paper. Lay it down wet on dry (your paint is wet/your paper is dry). We want a strong concentration of paint and this time we do not want it to run all over the place.

Step 5: Taking that same dark mixture of paint, go around his wing and tail.

Step 6: The chickadee has a blue-gray color. First make sure everything is dry, then make a mixture of cobalt blue and a touch of burnt sienna and paint his back, tail, under his chin, and belly.

Step 7 Final: After everything is dry, make another dark “black” mixture and paint his head, beak, rim of wing, part of the tail and his claws. Can you see that I did not paint his whole head but left some of the original “black” showing? I also made a half circle suggesting his eye.

“Chickadee at My Feeder Montage”
I got you, you quick tiny happy thing! This chickadee grabs a seed, flies away, takes some suet, flies away, grabs another seed, flies away…over and over and over again!

image: 6.5×4.5
off white mat outside dimensions: 10×8
no frame
$30

Click here to purchase, it will take you to the available watercolor page.

I hope you enjoyed this step-by-step watercolor demonstration on how to paint the black-capped chickadee.

5 Comments | Artwork, Birds, Nature Sketching, art, chickadee, nature, step by step painting, wildlife | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by letspaintnature

Chickadee Love

November 19, 2009

If there ever was a pleasant birdie, that can instantly uplift your mood, it is most definitely the black-capped chickadee. This tiny little creature (only 5″ at the most) is a bundle of pure energy. If you ever have the privilege of one visiting your feeder, it will not visit for long. Not because you are a bad host, but because its trait is fidgety. A black-capped chickadee will arrive at your feeder, grab a seed, and take off…eating it elsewhere. This will take place in a matter of seconds making you ask yourself…”What’s wrong? Where is it going?” 

No matter…we have him on camera…

 

Isn’t he the cutest??!!?? He is looking right at us! You might be asking yourself, “What’s the big deal? It’s just a chickadee?”

Well, for some reason I use to have many chickadee visitors on a regular basis, then several years ago they all dissapeared from my area. I don’t know why. I still saw them in the forest preserves near my house, but at my feeder they were missing. When they do visit, I make a big deal about it.

Where is your neck Mr. Chickadee? What did you do with it?

I still think you are handsome.

Don’t go…I want to learn from you.

I think we must make a few watercolor sketches from our friend. Yes! This weekend, we will paint our friend. I cannot wait.

3 Comments | Birds, chickadee, nature, wildlife | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by letspaintnature

Affordable Art Sale

November 14, 2009

Huge art sale just in time for Christmas! Do you want to give original fine art as a gift but think you can’t afford it? You might be surprised at how reasonable it can be.

All pastel paintings will be 25% off from November 14 – December 19, 2009!

spears_woods italian_countryside 
winter_solitude winding_stream welcome_spring
lrs_trail lrs icy_reflections
from_the_pines clearing_gate coopers_hawk
day_lit_moon

Click here to go to the available pastels page. Email me the title and I will give you the new 25% off price.

If you prefer something smaller to give as a gift you might want to check out the available watercolors page.

Thank you!

2 Comments | Artwork, Birds, Landscape, Nature Sketching, art, cooper's hawk, nature, storm, weather, wildlife | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by letspaintnature

Mighty Oak Watercolor

November 10, 2009

Over the weekend as I went hiking, I came upon this beautiful specimen. Isn’t it mighty? Even with absolutely no leaves it has an impact. It’s skeleton tells the story of strength. I don’t know how old this oak tree is but it sure is gigantic. What can it teach me…

Mighty Oak Watercolor

 Why, this oak had much to teach me through sketching and painting. As I placed the graphite to the watercolor paper I marveled at how long and thick the branches were and how short and stubby the twigs were on my paper. I always knew that when looking at an oak, but I never officially appreciated it until I had to draw it.

The most important revelation I had while painting was discovering how to successfully portray a 3-D looking tree as opposed to a flat 2 dimensional looking tree that you often find in paintings. Here is the secret….nobody is paying me to tell you…I make no money off this site…this is a free gift…this is HUGE…

The secret is in the sun.

This painting took me about 2 hours to paint. As I started I immediately noticed that many of the branches looked black and about 20% of the branches were a very light brown. By the time I was almost finished most of the branches were light brown and only a few were black. Why? Because the earth had continued to rotate and didn’t wait for me to finish, causing the tree to be in a different position, and the sun to cast light on different branches.

Two dimensional trees you see in some paintings have the light coming in one direction and the shadow in the opposite direction. No! Don’t fall into that trap! The branches closest to you are catching sunlight as well.

If you keep that in mind when looking at a tree, no matter how impressionistic you like to paint, it will look very realistic!

You’re welcome.

America needs more creative art. Our society is programing us to be the work horse for a profitable select few. I’m not a crazy person, but this is what I see all around. My wish is that more people can break out of the “mold” and share their talent. You have it…it might have been pushed down or discouraged because a monetary value could not be set on your talent, but you have it. Please practice it and share it with us. We need it.

7 Comments | Artwork, Nature Sketching, art, hiking, nature, sketchbook | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by letspaintnature

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