More Zoo Watercolors

Last weekend at the zoo, I decided to play with watercolors. How splashy and free-form could I go? (Ah, the salmonberries are blooming, hooray for spring...)

And how dark and contrasty could I go? (Hello, surly cattle egret! What fine plumage you have.)

Ultimately, I ended up in the middle somewhere, watching the mature elephants proudly swish their tails while the whippersnapper elephant sprayed water from his trunk and playfully head-butted his elders.

I had a good time painting that day. (See also the hippo and Mount Hood.)

Hippo Adventure

I have been little bit obsessed with visiting the Oregon Zoo on weekends of late. Partly, it's the sheer gratuitous convenience of it--I haven't lived so close to a zoo since I spent a summer in Washington DC. So yes. Give me a few spare hours on a Saturday afternoon, and you'll very likely see me making a bee-line to the zoo.

And this past Saturday, there I was at the hippo habitat, and the hippos had hauled out of their pond and were dozing in the sun. I only had 15 minutes until the zoo was going to close, but I really wanted to get the sketch of the hippo in this lovely pose. Boom, whacked out the rough ink outlines, now just need to break out the watercolors and get it painted in...

Mind you, it has been months since I used my watercolors. And the last time we moved, I put my awesome sketching-optimized hip-pack into a box and of course I haven't seen sense. So I'm just fumbling around with a shoulder bag, trying to get my paints and water and brushes all ready, feeling rushed and flustered.

And the next thing I know, the sketchbook has fallen over the fence...right into the hippo enclosure. Whoops.

I couldn't reach it. The lashed-together stakes of bamboo were tall and pokey for reaching over, and too close together to slip a hand through. The tall young woman standing next to me couldn't reach it either. But then her boyfriend gave her a boost, and she performed an incredible (and darned nerve-racking) feat of gymnastics that, amazingly, allowed her to grab the sketchbook. We gaped at each other, stunned, amazed that it had worked. (All the while, passing elementary school students were chatting about how many more people are killed by hippos than by lions each year, too--heightening the sense of danger, indeed!)

In gratitude, I gave the two brave heros one of the "boldly go" cards that I had in my bag. They were delighted--art rescue, art reward.  Perfect.

And, in truth, the hippo sketch really was the best thing I did all day. What a face!

Night Sky

Back in December, I was on a camping trip in the Oregon woods. The fog had cleared for a short time, and I did some experimental sketching of the Douglas fir trees silhouetted against the night sky. Dilute white acrylic paint called out the faint glow of the sky in contrast to the shapes of the dark trees.

I'd been playing with the idea of pursuing the ideas in this sketch more, but it was just simmering on the back burner for quite a while. Then, a colleague of mine at work, who worked at the museum's planetarium, announced that she was moving out of town. Clearly, the starry sky would be an appropriate theme for her going away card, right?

Revisiting and adapting the shapes from the earlier sketches, with gold paint-pen on black paper. The "boldly" caption is, of course, a Star Trek joke--boldly going where no-one has gone before, right?

For the final version, I hand drew the stars with a white colored pencil on the blue paper, stippling away in a coffee shop one Saturday afternoon. I carved the design of words and tree into a linoleum block print, and mixed a "nearly black" ink out of blue, purple, and green. The joy of sunny and dry weather in Portland--the ink dries faster that it would have in winter!

I printed a few variants on these, and they'll be wandering through the postal system over the next few days. My planetarium friend enjoyed her hand-delivered copy too--hers was extra special, with a hint of glitter. Yay.

Dr Sketchy Anti-Art School at Stumptown

Enjoyed attending the Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School session at the Stumptown Comix Fest last weekend. Was in the lovely company of my friends Isabel and Deb, and we had a good time trying to draw the models who were dressed up as characters from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics.

Started off on the short poses with a good old black ballpoint pen. Unfussy, wake my hands up a bit.

As the poses got longer, I started adding bits of watercolor over the top of the pen lines. Especially useful for those ghostly shadows around the eyes of Dream, doncha know.

Longer poses brought out more watercolor effects. Ultimately, though, the official models weren't nearly as delightful as one our fellow artists in the crowd--a lovely young woman with her hair curled into bright pink ringlets, wearing a dress that would have made little Bo Peep proud. When she came across the room to get a better view of the Death model, I leaped at the chance to sketch her, too.

Good fun all around. Thank you, Dr Sketchy.

Visiting Family

My brother and his family came to visit during the kid's spring break. Some quick doodles I did while we were all gathered in the kitchen, playing board games and reading books.

The younger nephew was really eager to pose when he saw that I was drawing folks; the older nephew was trying to focus on the board game, and only occasionally glanced over to let me keep drawing. I was amused by that dynamic.

Idea-Gathering for Wildflower Festival Posters

It sounds like the official Wildflower Festival posters are going to start appearing around the Eugene/Springfield area of Oregon this weekend! To celebrate, more preliminary sketches from that project--when we were still trying to decide what species of bird, and what species of butterfly, would work best. Ideas, measurements, data, doodles.

Some of those quick drawings of birds singing their hearts out are so funny to me. Makes me think of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, where the song sparrow bursts into a rousing chorus of "On Top of Spaghetti..."

4/22/12 Edited to add: Realizing folks may not have followed the link at the top to see the final poster in all its purple glory, will include that image here. Yay!

Wildflower Season

Mount Pisgah Arboretum invited me to do the poster art for their Wildflower Festival again this year. The event, which is scheduled for May 20, 2012, is always a delightful one--great music, great food, great people, and hundreds and hundreds of local wildflowers with botanists galore to tell you all about them.

The featured flower on the poster this year is the riverine lupine, Lupinus rivularis. Since I am such a fan of talking about sketching as a process, here are some of hidden, early layers in the Photoshop file that show me doodling rough shapes and colors before settling in on the final arrangement.

Similarly, the yellow-rumped warbler went through a lot of different poses and refinements before it ended up in its final state.

Keep your eyes open; volunteers will be putting posters up all over the Eugene/Springfield area soon!

More posts about creating posters for festivals at Mount Pisgah Arboretum:

• Lobster Mushroom
• Monkeyflowers
• Witches's cap with banana slug
• California oatgrass