Dragon: First steps.

This week I have started thinking about the Dragon Puppet. So far I have just played around with paper and scissors. I am basing the first version of puppet on the old engraving of the Henham Dragon and it’s going to be just a simple articulated 2D shape.

 

 

benign…

heraldic 1…

heraldic 2…

fearsome…

cautious…

with enticing biscuit….

 

Ready….

steady ….

  

leap …

Dogs in Dutch Churches

This is a sketch book and research week for me. I have a dragon puppet on the go, the next coot print is being designed  and I am still mulling over my brief notes from Amsterdam. The Rijksmuseum was exceptionally wonderful and we only covered a small section of it. We are going back in September.
I particularly wanted to see some of the genre paintings and the calm cathedral interiors of Pieter Saenredam and Emanuel De Witte. etc. The calm atmosphere is created by the beautifully modulated colours and still figures. However I noticed there are often dogs in the frame, not all of whom are behaving as good church dogs should.

I made a few sketches and notes in the museum and then, back in the UK, spent an hour in the National Gallery looking at the Dutch Cathedral paintings there. Some brief research only shows that others have noticed the frolicking and occasionally urinating dogs,  but as to why they are there I am not quite sure.

Rijksmuseum sketches

The dogs are often in the centre of the paintings, sometimes with an owner but sometimes just going about their own doggy business. Stand offs, playing, sniffing and just hanging about they add such a domestic and normal air to the scene.

  

The sketch at the top of the above page is from a fascinating detail in Pieter Saenredam’s painting “The Interior of the Buurkerk at Utrecht 1644” in the National Gallery. There is a boy teaching a dog to sit or beg and another figure contemplating some curious graffiti showing the the four sons of Aymon escaping on Bayard the magic horse who is able to change his size to accommodate the number of his riders. It’s all very curious and irreverent. Excellent.

 

National Gallery Sketches… I particularly like the dog looking up at the preacher

A watercolour of one of the dogs from the National Gallery paintings.

I am sure something will develop from these.

Coot and Willow Print

The print I made last week, a continuation from my last posting on Beautiful Beasts here. There will be some more prints to come I hope.

 

I did a few initial drawings and tonal sketches for what will be a 3 colour reduction.

 

Various first stages and the lino block

Some final stages with various different colourways.

I like the image, but the printing needs work :). Maybe one really good one out of 6.

Coot and Willow..  image 6 x6 inches

I see the coot pottering about on the shoreline here, in and out of the willows. There is always a fisherman somewhere. The coot is large, the willow tree is small. That’s just how I wanted it.

Butterflies and more.....

Sadly the spiderlings had disappeared when I went to check up on them this week but after the weather we've been having I can't really blame them and just hope they've found a safe home somewhere.

High winds and hailstones have caused quite a lot of damage to tender plants but as soon as the sun appears the butterflies and bees are back again. I decided to paint this tortoiseshell butterfly which had finished fluttering around for its allotted time and had come to rest finally in our little church.  It was so beautiful I couldn't resist bringing it home and getting it under the microscope to see it in detail.

   Watercolour

 

 

The head and body of the butterfly is covered in fine hairs which are difficult to see with the naked eye

 

 

Tortoiseshell butterfly watercolour and gouache

 

To emphasise the lighter fine hairs I've used gouache and will be putting a background to the picture, but initially wanted to concentrate on the form  and texture of the body and hairs.

 

Another frequent visitor to the pond in our village wood  is the dragonfly and the iridescent body of a Southern Migrant Hawker [I think] caught my attention last year when it was glinting in the road.  Unfortunately it was dead but still in one piece so I brought it home and managed to take some photos before the beautiful colour disappeared and still have the dragonfly to observe its shape and form.

 

Southern Migrant Hawker juvenile, watercolour, unfinished

 

I think this must have been a juvenile as the colour was green but adults apparently turn a beautiful blue 

 

So work continues on the spiders and dragonflies and I take time out now and again to watch and listen to the bees on our Poached egg plant, Limnanthes douglasii, which is providing them with a welcome source of food and a feast of colour for us.......

 

 

Bee on Limnanthes douglasii

 

Garden spiders..........

Apologies to those of you who don't like spiders but the last few days of  warm weather has made us particularly aware of them on the allotment.  We use several plastic water butts for watering and while dipping a can into one of them a sudden movement on the side of the bright green butt made me look down at a wonderful sight, a nest full of baby spiders.

Araneus diadematus - European garden spiderlings

 

The delicate silk nest surrounding these babies gave them protection and some exercise as they raced up and down the threads to investigate the cause of the vibration.  Dipping the watering can in the butt was causing them some concern but they soon settled back together again in one mass.

Garden spiders vary in colour from pale yellowy-brown to very dark brown, but they all have a characteristic white cross-shaped group of spots on their abdomen so are easy to identify. They are common throughout the UK which is why our gardens are filled with  their beautiful orb webs which help them to catch  prey such as wasps and butterflies.

The female spider lays her eggs in a silk egg sac  after mating and then spends the rest of her life protecting them.Unable to leave the eggs to hunt and feed, she would have died in late autumn before her spiderlings hatched out in May this year.

Quite a story and I thought it made a worthy 'beast' for this week so have started on a watercolour of an adult spider and hope you're not an arachnophobe!

Watercolour in progress of Araneus diadematus

 

A finished picture next time  and an update on the spiderlings........perhaps they will have molted which is something they will do several times before becoming an adult as their skin can't stretch. It's a tough life being a spider.

Coot Sketches…

My last BB this week and some sketches of the coot for a possible print which I will be doing next week. The weather has been so wonderful that its hard to be indoors at the drawing board!

 

Print progress next time.

A Cute…ah no….a Coot Chick.

The coot chicks are quite odd looking and not exactly cute. Dark and fluffy in the main but with an extraordinary punk hairdo. Long yellow hairs make a halo round its red and orangy head. It’s mostly bald around its eyes and beak.

 

 

Sketchbook Chick with its yellow hairs and red bald face..but I guess its Mother loves it.Watercolour 6x4 inches

A couple of years ago I wanted to return to using scraperboard. It’s a great medium for black and white and I had illustrated various things in the past using the technique. That was some time ago, when you could get wonderful professional grade white scraperboard from Essdee. Sadly that is no longer available and what they sell now is thin and yellowy with a greasy texture. However in the UK that is all that is available. “Ampersand” scratchboard from the USA is better.

 
The scraperboard and sketchbook

At the time I was trying to get used to the new stuff and made a few trial pieces including this little coot chick. I had abandoned it because of the horrible quality on the board, but today I thought I would get it finished. It’s really a test piece, so perhaps not as well thought out as it could have been but I am going to give scraperboard another try.

I was equally fascinated with its spiky hair back then!

Coot Chick  scraperboard 4 x 5 inches

Canal Coot

I am just back from a wet but wonderful trip to Amsterdam. In between the showers, the museums, the galleries, the cafes, the bars and the markets we did a bit of canal side strolling Near the Rijksmuseum, sections of the canal have been planted with floating platforms of water plants, just a few feet from the bank. This is apparently a scheme to provide nesting sites for coot, moorhens and other canal birds. It seems to work.
This coot was particularly annoyed by the arrival of two ducks and rushed into the water  ferociously chasing them off. I did not get an action shot but here she is returning to her nest.

She was not over impressed by our presence either because she is, of course, protecting a chick or two. I could only see one peeping above the foliage.

Coot chicks with their red spiky featherless heads are not the prettiest “Ahhhh” factor baby birds, looking more like mini vultures,  but I am going to see what I can do this week. Some sketches, maybe a print.

The coot I see here at Grafham are shy and rather secretive. Their feet are wonderful.We see them scuttling across the lane sometimes but on the reservoir shoreline you can see them slowly  searching for food with their strange hesitant gait. 
This is a sketch from last year…

I am very fond of coot. More sketches etc to come.

Soil erosion on the Fen....

While I was waiting for the Highland cattle to come a little closer to Jon's hide at Holme Fen, I wandered around the wooded area that backs on to it and was fascinated to see how the peat around the roots of the trees has dried up and shrunk down in level.

You can see how the trees have developed additional roots for stability but in some places you can view right through to the other side.

I couldn't resist sketching this wonderful shape but had to finish when the back legs of my stool had sunk so low into the soft peat that I was almost looking up into the canopy of the tree. I self consciously heaved myself up before I ended up flat on my back and thought yet again how incredibly adaptable nature can be.

 

The fox was unfortunately just a figment of my imagination but I like to think he would have been there if I hadn't been so conspicuous......

 

 

 

Rough sketches in gouache for my painting which hopefully will have moved on before my week is up........

 

 

Highland Cattle on Holme Fen

Inspired by Val's beautiful and highly detailed painting of the Black Bee at Holme Fen, I had a few hours sketching in the same area over Easter but unfortunately didn't see one! I freely admit that I may have just missed it as  I'm  a novice and have a lot to learn from Val about her beloved bees. She has spent a long time studying them, and her fantastic 'bee' work really makes me think about their habitat, their complexity and their important place in the world.

Another important species in the world of conservation, which I did see at Holme Fen is the Highland Cow, [even I couldn't miss them....] and the Great Fen project is putting them to good use there.


Highland cattle and calf with 'Jon's hide' behind them

These cattle are perfect for conservation grazing as they will eat tough vegetation  other cattle just wouldn't touch.  Being very hardy, they can live out in all weather and as they are relatively light in weight, they don't poach up the  ground - particularly useful after the last winter and spring we had!

 

At the start of my visit,  the cattle were in the middle of the field so I walked around to 'Jon's hide' and did some sketches of them in the distance. Over time, the grazing of the Highland cattle should encourage a wide range of  plant species such as  orchid and cuckoo flower to become established. This will hopefully introduce different insects, and more small mammals which in turn will increase owls as they will have a rich food source and with the shorter vegetation can detect their prey more easily.

 

 

 

By the end of my visit, the cattle were kind enough to come to the fence and I managed to get some close up sketches and a quick water colour done......

 

 

The calf was particularly eye catching and so inquisitive, but Mum kept a watchful eye on him [or her, difficult to tell at this stage!] as they gradually worked their way across the field again.

 

A good morning sketching and enjoying the beautiful countryside around us and now I must put those pages of sketches to good use and think about a completed painting of Highland Cattle......

 

For more lovely photos of Highland cattle on Darlow's Farm, part of the Great Fen project,   just follow the link  http://www.greatfen.org.uk/discovery-zone/gallery/full/210?field_mm_category_tid=578, 

 

The Fenland Black Bee: The (almost) Finished Piece.

The final piece with some foliage, a suggestion of the birch trees and a view of the distant bird hide. I am dithering about adding a Highland Cow.
The hide is known as“Jon’s Hide” an eco friendly straw bale hide created by Jon Smith one of the restoration officers at the Great Fen project. You can see how the building of the hide progressed here.
The Highland Cattle are there to help manage the land. I included them in my first sketches at the beginning of April. They are good grazers for wet lands and will eat tough weedy plants, keep the vegetation down, break up the ground and so encourage more marsh loving wild flowers. 

As I quoted in an earlier post, “artwork is never finished…just abandoned”. At this stage I usually put a picture away for a week or so, out of sight. Then have another look. I might add another leg to the bee… I might add the highland cow…I might play about with the hairs on the bee’s thorax a bit more… but that’s for another time. I shall be back in about a week.

Bee and Flower

It’s mid way and the drawing of the White Dead Nettle flower is more or less compete. The leaves are deeply veined but this is not a “botanical” drawing so I don’t feel the need to draw every one of them, just give an impression of their complexity.

It’s a time to assess the weight of various areas. The black bee and the two bugs are the main focus but I need some more weight at the top left. I am going to add some straight lines for an indication of the strange silver birch trees that form the background to Holme Fen and will add the distant bird hide which you can see when you look towards the wood from the info centre where the white dead nettles grow. maybe even a Highland cow.

 

On the board..image about 10 x11 inches . Watercolour and pencil on Arches HP 300