English Robin on a Brake Cable

English Robin on a Brake Cable - ~90cm x 60cm - Latex on Plywood

A few months back, I mentioned I did a thing... (went back to school). As of this past Thursday I am done for the term, having written my final exam. I'd started out the term taking a Sculpture and Drama class and ended up dropping the sculpture class (for a number of reasons, largely because I'd injured my shoulder and wasn't sure I was going to be able to do the work, but also checking on classes/credits I have versus classes I still want to take, I did not need the sculpture class, and, indeed, if I did finish it, I would not have been able to take one of the drawing classes I wanted to take later in the program...). 

The Drama class I was taking was Technical Theatre (Scenic Construction) - not acting - and so involved a bit of art making as part of the projects required for the class. 

The class was really fun, the teacher just fantastic with a wealth of knowledge from decades of working in theatre and filmmaking. While the class is called Technical Theatre I Scenic Construction, there was also parts on general layouts and theatre safety and an introduction to entertainment rigging. 

One of the final projects was building and painting a "TV flat". A "TV flat" is a modular section of a wall used to define space on a stage in a theatre or a soundstage. A TV flat differs from a more traditional theatre flat in the way the framing is laid out and TV flats have a plywood facing, whereas traditional Theatre Flats usually have a fabric facing. 

The first part of the project was just cutting the wood and assembling the flat in the theatre shop. The second part was to take a 6"x9" image and transpose it onto the flat using a grid method. The image on the flat was to be painted with interior laytex paint and a limited palette of primary colours were supplied and other colours had to be mixed from those. 

Most students picked images they did not create, but me, being me, decided I needed to paint something I MADE... 

Amanda took this picture of an English Robin on one of her trips to the UK many years ago and it hangs on a wall in a hallway in our house. I've often thought it would make a fun painting. 

I did a rough sketch with ink and watercolours and changed up some of the colours... just to see what that might look like. 

And then did a better copy with gouache on paper (~11'x17") and sent that to the prof to print off as a 6x9 image for me to copy onto the flat. 

While I was at it, I also touched up/repainted two other paintings I'd previously done (because we were supposed to submit a few options...)

Deirdre the DH Diplodocus - I literally took the original - painted in watercolours and inks - and painted over it with Gouache (as I figured gouache would be easier to reproduce with latex paints than wishy-washy watercolours!)

Pink Surly Karate Monkey on Blue-Green Background - this was already painted with gouache, but I touched it up, and extended the colour on a couple edges of the paper, to eh bike would fit into and area that would be cropped to make it a 2:3 ratio... 

Initially the prof suggested doing the dinosaur... but I talked him into letting me to the bird! 

Grid Transposition Method. 

outline done

mixing paints to figure out the greens.

painting the background

finishing things up. 

I did most of this work at home over the long weekend at the beginning of April, right before the last day of classes - when the projects were due! (I was NOT the only one leaving things to the last minute!). In the end the class was given a week extension. 

I hauled it all back to campus and submitted along with my drafting project. 

There was a drafting project as well which was fun - drawing a plan and front elevation of a small stage set. Got to bust out some skills and equipment I had not used in a LONG time... 

The painting project was really fun too. I feel like I have not been doing much painting for the last few years. What little painting I have been doing has been ink or watercolours and this felt like getting back to doing the things I used to do. 

Am I going to be doing more work with laytex paints in the immediate future... I don't know... 

Am I going to continue with this return to school business...? I don't know.. 

Probably... 

Unfortunately, I HAD planned to take some classes this summer - to get the first year Foundation in Drawing classes out of the way (which I'd never bothered to do back when I was taking classes in the 1990s...) but for some reason (some sort of restructuring of the School of the Arts curriculums...?) there were almost NO studio art or drama classes being offered in spring or summer session - despite there being all sorts of drama and studio art classes every spring and summer since, like, forever (my very first studio art classes were taken in Intersession and summer session back in... 1995...? Morgan took Drama last summer...) - all of which REALLY kind of wrecked my plans for how the next three years might roll out... Either I'll have to abandon the original plan of taking 4th year senior Drawing and Related Work IV A and B classes... or I'll be going to school for an extra year...?

So no school this summer... on the plus side, I'm probably travelling to France and the Netherlands, so I'll be seeing lots of (and perhaps making some) art while I'm there!   

American White Pelican on the South Saskatchewan River

 

American White Pelican on the South Saskatchewan River

30cmx30cm, Acrylic Ink and Gouache on Paper

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - More Last Pages

 Just filling in a few more pages at the end of the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook - then on with 2023! (I have a lot of catching up to do!)

The Surly Big Fat Dummy 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Last Pages

There are a few pages left at the end of the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook Volume Two and no more birbs to add to them. I've been meaning to draw SOMETHING on these pages, instead of just leaving blank... so...

Maybe the rest will be the equipment i used or the bikes I rode around on...?

Will there be a Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2023 Sketchbook... maybe... Might seem like it's a bit late getting started, but better late than never...? 

Critters on Bicycles - Mothra the Ruby Throated Hummingbirb

 

Mothra the Ruby Throated Hummingbirb rides a penny-farthing. 

Honestly, I had no idea I had so many friends that owned or wanted to ride a penny-farthing. This is only the second one I've drawn, but a few of the others that fired off a dozen suggestions (instead of, y'know, reading the instructions) almost universally included a penny-farthing among their list... 

I can't believe this month is almost over, and I've drawn a Critter on a Bicycle EVERY DAY, ALL MONTH!? And, on top of that, almost every day I ALSO drew a picture for the 40 Days of 40K Challenge!? This has definitely been the most productive october-art-challenge-month ever. 

I had planned on continuing doing one every day until I finished the sketchbook - which has 60 pages (30 sheets, two sides). That would have carried me all to nearly the end of November... but I think I'm going to power through to the end of the month and then do a few more (finishing up the suggestions I have so far) and then lay off for a bit and do some other stuff. 

I would like to finish off the sketchbook - filling it with Critters on Bicycles - maybe by the end of the year... but that might be a bit ambitious, if I'm not doing them as regularly. 

We shall see. 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Yellow-Rumped Warbler

I was out for a very long, hot, dusty ride in the countryside this past Saturday afternoon. Just as I was riding back into town by the QE2 Power Plant, I spotted a BALD EAGLE over the river hovering and diving then taking to flight again, soaring about, terrifying the massive flocks of gulls, being chased about by some crows, hovering and diving again and eventually settled down on a stop in the middle of the river. Then it was joined by a Great Blue Heron!? 

It was quite the sight! It cheered me a little after a long and disappointing ride to a number of dried up wetlands devoid of birds or much other life! 

While I was busy taking pictures of these from the West Bank of the river trying to get a good angle through the thick brush that borders the river, I noticed a number of small birds flitting about in the bush right next to me… so I took a few pictures of those as well. Some were Cedar Waxwings, but at least one other was one I hadn’t seen before!! 

Yellow-Rumped Warbler in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook (Volume Two!) 

These are a few of those pictures that I took that weren't terrible... 

Oh, and the Eagle and Heron I was looking at...?

Bald Eagle Hovering before diving. 

Eagle being chased around by some ballsy crows. 

Great Blue Heron Arrives

Heron... watching the Eagle... watching the Heron... 

Just after I left the position where I could see them both, the Eagle took off in the direction of the Heron. Then moments later I saw the Heron flying over where the Eagle had been. Did the Eagle take a run at the Heron...? Did the Heron make the Eagle regret some of it's life choices...? No idea... we'll just have to imagine how that all went down. 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Sharp-Tailed Grouse

This past Saturday I went for a LONG ride in countryside south and west of Saskatoon. I’d plotted out a number of areas to visit that I’d never been to before, but both maps and Google Earth assured me were wetlands. I was hoping to maybe spot some migratory birds heading south. Instead it was a hot and dreary ride and every one of the areas I visited were entirely dried up and there were no birds to be seen at any of them… 

Along one dusty summer road a flight to Sharp-Tailed Grouse furiously took to flight at my approach, startling me. As they only flew a short distance ahead, the moment was repeated several times - though during the supplementary bursts into flight I had my camera ready and caught a few in frame… grainy and out of focus, a couple were good enough to clearly identify and use as reference for drawing. 

 Sharp-Tailed Grouse in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook (Volume Two!)

No birb in this last picture... just where I left my bike to chase after them. 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Snow Goose!

I went for a quick ride out to The Chappell Marsh the morning of Monday, 5 September 2022 (Labour Day!). The small area that hasn’t completely dried up was just teeming with birds - loads of Canada Geese and assorted shore birds and ducks… and in the middle of it all a big white bird - not Pelican big - it was the same size as the Canada Geese! It was far to busy preening (and/or resting) to lift up it’s head for me to get a proper look - or a decent picture… 

Lacking binoculars, I just took lots of pictures and hoped I’d get a better look at it at home.

Snow Goose in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook (Volume Two!) 

So many birds! (Can you spot the Great Blue Heron!?) 

Snow Goose! Come on... lift your head up...?!

PRETTY PLEASE!?

Ugh... geese... such divas... 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

At the same wetland I spotted the Sandhill Cranes, I briefly spotted what I thought was a Hairy Woodpecker at first - black and white, red cap - but then I realized the pattern was different and it had red on the front of its face below the beak. I raced around the brush, trying to get a better look - and a picture! But it was too quick - as soon as I thought I had an angle and zoomed in on the spot - it was gone! 

I’d almost completely forgotten about it until I got home and was downloading pictures for the day and found all the pictures of empty branches of dead trees surrounding the marsh and remembered the bird. I asked Amanda if she knew of a woodpecker with red on it’s face below the beak - like a chin or a bib - and off the top of her head she said “Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker”…? I looked it up and, sure enough, that was the bird I’d been looking at. 

I am so damned grateful to have her in my life… for so many reasons… not the least of which is how much she knows about birds (far more than she gives herself credit for!) 

 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook (Volume Two!) 

This is where I first spotted it... but by the time I had my camera out and focused... it flew off.. 

...over to here.. I SWEAR it was RIGHT THERE when I took the pic... 

But then I saw it darting waaaaay off past my bike in the OTHER direction... So I chased after it.. and, by "chase", I mean "WALK"! I didn't want to scare it off again!!

I swear it's RIGHT THERE... in the tree BEHIND the one that the camera really decided it needed to focus on... 

Bah! 

Saw the birb. Figured out what it was. Added to the book, moving on! 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Sandhill Cranes

This past Saturday, 3 September 2022, I went out for a long bike ride south of town on the east side of the river looking for Sandhill Cranes. I was riding into a 30Km/hr, gusting to 50Km/hr wind and it was +33°C, but I’d heard they were passing through and didn’t want to miss them! I’ve often seen them in Chief Whitecap park or the fields to the east and on the sandbars in the river along the west side of the park. Just as I got to the off-leash area of the park I was devastated to see a MASSIVE FLOCK of them lifting off in the distance and flying off to the west, across the river! By the time I made it around the bypass trail to the river  there were only four left flying off in the distance - too far to see properly or take pictures of. I saw immediately the cause of their departure - a half-dozen or so idiots tearing up and down the river on jet skis… ugh… 

I carried on to the east and south again hoping to see some having out in the fields. Nothing. 

I got far enough south I bumped into the north edge of CFD Dundurn and turned back along the dirt road bordering the base. 

I turned north to check out a small wetland I’d only been to once before. Thankfully there was SOME water left in the wetland (SO MANY have just COMPLETELY dried up over the last two years!!!). There were piles of little shore birds - loads of Killdeers and at least two other species that I’m still not sure about. 

Clear across on the other side there were specs that I figured were probably geese chilling (I’m not sure if you can call it “chilling” in the mid-plus-thirties…?) on the “beach” (land left bare by receding waterline!) I didn’t have binoculars as I’ve fallen out of the habit of bringing them along (I found I hadn’t been using them and just taking pictures with the zoom-camera), but now at least four or five times have wished I had brought them.

I took a number of pictures of the shore birds and the birds across the way… it wasn’t until I actually got home and looked at the pictures I’d taken that I realized there HAD been a pair of Sandhill Cranes among them!!! Yay!!! 

Sandhill Cranes in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook (Volume TWO!)

From the bypass trail around the fenced off-leash area - can you see the flock!? 

Let me blow that up for you...

It's that grey-ish smudge just above the horizon in the middle of the picture... 

I took a few pics with the zoom on the camera... 

And... the zoom on that camera IS pretty good... buuuut... 

When I got back to the river, I thought I saw shapes that might be four more at the far end of a sand bar a bit further to the south, so I rushed ahead to the next break in the trees where I might be able to get a better look! 

Got there just in time to spot them flying off in the distance... can you see them...? 

There they are... 

Here are some of the clowns that were scaring them off.. 

Ugh... SO MANY of these out on the river this past weekend... 

A few hours later at that last little wetland I stopped at before heading home... 

Lots of little shore birds in the foreground and dots on the shore opposite I figured were probably geese, but I zoomed in to take pics, just in case... 

Yep... Geese... but wait..

What else is there walking among them...!?

Yippee! A Pair of Sandhill Cranes!!!

So I did get to see a couple... sort of... 

As I mentioned, I didn't have binoculars WITH me and was just zooming in on the area where I figured things were (because the view screen isn't all that great - and nearly impossible to make out anything in bright daylight - other than the largest shapes!) 

Just kind of have to point it in the general direction and hope for the best... 

Sometimes I get LUCKY!!!