Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Carpe Minutiae!?


Father Bede, my cantankerous and very strict Latin teacher from many, many years ago, would be looking disapprovingly at this title I'm sure. But it's been a long time so I've just made a wild guess as to how to modify Carpe Diem(Seize the Day) to Seize the Minutes.

I had to make an early morning delivery to our vets and wanted to try a bit more field sketching on the way home before leaving for work. So I seized 45 minutes at a new location: Militia Hill Hawk Watch at Fort Washington State Park. I figured there wouldn't be any hawks in flight but thought the feeders might be busy. And they were.

So this sketch is my second attempt at using watercolors in the field. The colors are too strong and straight from the pan. I used the tiny brush that comes with my field box and at times it's just too small. But the drawings helped to get me more comfortable with watercolor field sketches. And I couldn't resist the acrobatics of the American Goldfinch. The other birds are a Downy Woodpecker and Mourning Dove.

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