I’ve been enamored with Grackles, and I’ve finished four drawings in the past few weeks. Three of them are of the same Grackle, who sat patiently on a branch, calling repeatedly to warn away other males in the area. This is the third colored pencil drawing on Ampersand Artistbord, and I think they have a neat feeling when they’re all together. I enjoy drawing the branch as much as the bird.
The top drawing is the largest one at 16”x20”. I also used metalpoint on the that one.
I’ve been experimenting with using fixative on these with hopes they can be framed without glass.
Probably best described as multimedia, I started with an Artist Bord by Ampersand and covered it with a coat of Golden Silverpoint Drawing Ground. My first thought was to use metalpoint, but after sketching in the birds on both, I switched to colored pencil. I used some blue ink for the backgrounds, and on the larger piece, I used an aluminum scrubber pad to place some blurry tree branches and a border.
9”x12”, I used Spectrafix Final Fixative and then Spectrafix Natural Glass varnish. This is an experiment as I don’t know how colored pencil will react to varnish. Time will tell.
Red-winged blackbirds are back and singing like crazy.
Ink and Inktense pencils on Strathmore, 9”x12”
I snapped about a dozen pictures of this guy way up into the treetops. I cropped the three picture I liked the best that showed a progression and then simplified them when I sketched them first in pencil, then in ink.
How many can claim a fifteen-year old blog? Happy anniversary to this little corner of the web where I’ve documented all the arts and crafts I’ve obsessed about since 2006. Even with that strong blogging habit, at some point over the past year I slowed down on blog posts and increased Instagram posts. Instagram is easy and popular, and it’s all too easy to forget about writing. Recently, I decided I missed keeping up this ancient blog and it needed an update—and perhaps Instagram needs to go away. Long story short, you cannot control reels on your feed, and I found many objectionable.
So, here’s an update on the ol’ blog. I’ve not been as artsy lately, but I’ve still managed several sketchbook sketches…
Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Mars Lumograph Black pencilsPen and ink on gray paperMore pen and ink, plus some water soluble graphiteAcrylic markers, Inktense, and Neocolor II
I also sketched this large landscape using Derivan Liquid Pencil tinted with blue and yellow.
Graphite, liquid pencil, Mars Lumograph Black, and Conte Pierre Noir. This measures about 14”x21”
A quick pen and ink landscape…
And a still life on Pastelmat.
Neocolor II and Pablo colored pencils
Here’s the question: Will this little blog still be here in another fifteen years?
