As Fall finally settles in and Winter looms large, how I long for Spring.
I will eagerly anticipate that morning walk in late March when I hear the first calls of the Red-winged Blackbirds as they return from their warm weather vacation. They will cling onto dilapidated cattails, their song pealing throughout Council Point Park and every marshy venue where I walk. This Red-winged Blackbird, sporting plumage that resembles dapper military attire, was in between songs, but he had been singing his heart out, with high hopes of landing a mate.
Sometimes, when it is cold, as those birds hit the high notes, tiny rings of condensation form around their beak, so their breath from a song looks like they are blowing smoke rings. When the Red-winged Blackbirds return to Southeast Michigan I know that soon the “early bloomers” will push through the still-cold soil and grace us with their pastel presence and the Forsythia bushes will compete with the dandelions, each vying for the title of “Most Vibrant Yellow”.
It’s been quite a year for me, from weathering the wiles of Mother Nature, to appreciating my wild and untamed fine-feathered friends, many which you’ve already met in this blog in 2025, with some adventures and photos that will continue to roll out in the coming months.
I’m sure the birds wish they could similarly turn back the hands of time and begin anew, like this Baltimore Oriole that was plucking plant fibers to start a nest back in late Spring.
I’d love to transport myself to that lovely Spring walk and extend it … forever – sigh.
While I want to say that I will quit whining about the weather, now that the long-range forecast predicts lots of snow for our region, that stat does NOT make my heart sing. I’m sure my feathered friends that choose to tough it out by overwintering here in Southeast Michigan will likewise not be singing their hearts out about that predicted plentiful precip.
Back on July 27th, I did a post entitled “Color my world” in which I told you how I began a long-awaited hobby, sketching and painting in watercolors, a pastime I dreamed about for decades, a hobby I intended to begin after retiring.
I have shared with you that my retirement aspirations changed a lot through the 50 years I worked, mostly because I could never have predicted the advent of the World Wide Web and just how it would impact my life. While working, I squirreled away lots of potential hobbies to do in my so-called “Golden Years” – most are still downstairs in Rubbermaid tubs … books, jigsaw puzzles, art materials, just to name a few.
When I was in my teens, one Summer I took a free charcoal sketching class offered by the City and decided this would be a fun hobby. My parents bought me some sketchbooks, charcoal pencils and pastel crayons, all which I have kept all these years …
… along with some how-to-draw books they bought to encourage that budding interest. My basement is a treasure trove of hobbies started throughout my life.
But, once school started and weekend chores got in the way, my time and sadly my enthusiasm for drawing dwindled.
Years later, after purchasing some Hallmark Christmas ornaments and greeting cards by Dutch artist Marjolein Bastin, my interest was again piqued to someday draw and paint similar nature scenes and creatures, but once again, I thought of this as a retirement hobby.
Fast forward a half-century + or – later.
I retired March 29, 2024 and I finally decided to take that sketching/painting plunge. I’d followed German artist Julia Bausenhardt’s blog and viewed her online tutorials on YouTube for several years, biding my time when I would start my own projects. I registered for an online class with Julia that included feedback on the assignments and it began April 28th. I loved that class and took another, then another. Those classes and the paintings prompted my July 27th post.
In that July 27th post, I showed you a drawing of a Blue Jay and said this would be my next painting after I learned more about sketching.
However, I have not returned to watercolor painting … just yet. No, I have not lost interest, but instead, when it finally cooled off a little, making long walks more tolerable, I seized each day and walked with the camera as much as possible. Winter will bring me more leisure time and I will once again pick up the paintbrush.
Yes, the Summer of 2025 was a pain!
For this walker, the seemingly endless days of heat, humidity, storms and wildfire smoke, wreaked havoc with my walking regimen. Undoubtedly, I could have been more productive inside the air-conditioned house, but inwardly I pouted about missing out on long walks with my camera.
Instead, over the course of a week or so, during those dreaded “Dog Days of Summer” I occupied my time sketching.
Julia offered these two tutorials.
So I sketched to my heart’s delight, hunkered down in the cool kitchen, various step-by-step tutorials up on the computer screen. I focused on learning details like feather formations, head shapes/profiles, bird anatomy, gestural movements, even how the shape/size of their feet affect how birds perch.
Happily, all my finished bird sketches did NOT look like the same bird – I hope you agree.
There are always new things to learn about any subject.
I found it interesting to learn there was a distinction between sketching and drawing, I know I’ve used these two words interchangeably long before my renewed interest in this hobby. Through Julia’s tutorials, I have learned that drawing is something that’s more focused, that you take your time with so your final product is much more refined, whereas sketching is looser and much less precise.
We began by drawing various circles and ellipticals, since basically bird shapes all begin there, plus we sketched a few odds and ends … hopefully you can distinguish the mushroom from the garlic.
In the “Posture and Proportions” and “Defining Angles of the Bird” portions of the course, Julia made it sound and look easy by having us sketch birds based on shapes, i.e. she told us when sketching a bird, you create a round ball for the head, an elliptical shape for the body, then a triangle for the wing(s), (especially if it is a side profile). The tail is a thin rectangle. There you have it, but there are details … there are always details, right?
Julia made a surprising statement early on in a sketching video. She said sketches should take no more than five or ten minutes to complete and stressed that such a lack of precise drawing might include squiggles, wavy lines and hash marks that would suffice as markings in the bird’s plumage. Hmm. I know my sketches took longer than five or ten minutes.
I have to admit two things: Julia’s squiggles, wavy lines and hash marks look much more realistic in her renderings than mine. I was reminded of the whimsical paintings that I shared with you in my July 27th post, because some of those paintings looked whimsical, though they were NOT intended to be whimsical at all. 🙂
Since the course covered bird anatomy, Julia gave us detailed illustrations of the eye, feather structure, even how a bird’s skeleton looks. I previously assumed all bird’s feet were similar, but learned differently in the videos.
Something I never noticed before, not only in conjunction with birdwatching, but also having parakeets and canaries as pets through the years, is that a bird’s back toe has only one bone, as opposed to the other toes, thus that back toe and its claw never curl around a branch or perch. Who knew?
Soon we were into the nitty-gritty of bird sketching.
Kingfishers are beautiful birds. I’ve only seen one and it was so far away, the camera captured a tiny blob on a branch. Kingfishers are adept at catching fish as you see in the slideshow below.
When we finished the Kingfisher series, Julia suggested doing another drawing, this time in colored pencil. Note: our North American Kingfishers do not have this coloring.
You’ve seen pictures of the Double-crested Cormorant from my shoreline walks. Yes, they are not the prettiest water birds, but they sure are easily identifiable by their hooked bill and wide, webbed feet. And, if those two attributes don’t identify a Cormorant at a glance, its stance with outstretched wings, looking like a vampire (or a flasher), will be a clue in identifying this bird
The Downy Woodpecker is the tiniest of our Woodpeckers.
Behold the lowly Sparrow, a bird of which we have plenty here in Southeast Michigan. There are 20+ species of them in this state, but the most common are the Song Sparrow and White-throated Sparrow. Many people refer to Sparrows as “Brown Bombers” so here are a few of my Brown Bombers. Imagine them singing their sweet song.
After I finished Julia’s classes, I decided to kick it up a notch.
I paged through the Charles Tunnicliffe book Mom bought me, which has been sitting on the living room coffee table for eons, … well twenty years to be exact.
Mom’s intention with this 2005 Christmas present was helping me to reinvigorate that interest, but as usual, work and other obligations crowded into that passion.
I even wrote about the book and being inspired enough to take a “walk and sketching” class at Oakwoods Metropark back in 2019. You can click here to read that post in case you missed it.
Well, the author makes the simple sketches look so easy here … a couple of pencil strokes, a dab of color here and there …
… and, because there were many simple sketches throughout the book – I tried a few of them – back to the ol’ drawing board as the expression goes.
I tried to replicate the artist’s sketches but did not do so well. I have a way to go yet.
I have a few larger drawings I now need to paint once the snow flies.
I’m going to continue to learn more with Julia. I do prefer the step-by-step tutorials with a little guidance.
I saw this quote awhile back and tucked it away – it’s perfect as we ease into the gray and gloom of Fall and Winter.
I am joining Terri’s Challenge this week which is “Hooves and Claws”. And, I will also have a photo for the “Hooves” portion on Wednesday, so please stay tuned.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
That was a colorful post — most interesting.
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Thank you Anne.
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What a great hobby, Linda! I also used to sketch a lot, mostly people or musicians from my record album covers. Then I got married, worked through college, then had kids.
I love your drawings of the birds, you really captured their feet/claws well! You have a gift! Your muse from Germany sounds interesting. Did you draw hooves too? 😉
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Thank you Terri! This was a little more difficult than the watercolors, where we get a step-by-step tutorial through to the end; in the sketching tutorials, Julia started out with the basic shapes, then she sped things up, so the almost-finished bird was there. So I had to fill in the blanks. 🙂 I found the claws the most difficult to be honest – some of my claws were too long, then too short. I did learn a lot though, but am thankful for my kneaded eraser! No, I didn’t draw any hooves, but I got a picture of a deer wading in the marsh, almost up to its body. I saw two deer in the water that day, but only one up close. It always amazes me to see the deer in the water, even though I’ve seen photos of them swimming in the past.
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Painting with watercolors is NOT easy! A lot of planning goes into the painting.
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People tell me that painting with acrylics is easier as you just paint over the mistakes you make. I have not tried acrylics … I would have nowhere to hang those paintings, so I have to stick with watercolor for now. I have a problem doing wet-on-wet watercolors though, as the colors run together and look bad sometimes. I did some pond lilies that were wet on wet and didn’t come out great. I’m going to redo them this Winter.
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My favorite drawing is the sparrow with beak open – and the way you led us to it and I could almost hear its song.
I look forward to seeing your colored versions.
Oh and the price tag on the book was so interesting “never more than $1.25”??? so interesting
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Thank you Yvette – that was my favorite sparrow drawing of the three too. We had step-by-step tutorials from start to finish in the watercolor painting classes, but in the sketching tutorials, we learned the basics, then Julia went to the final, so we had to work off the final, rather than step-by-step, so that was a bit more difficult. We have a lot of sparrows around here, so I hear their song all Summer. I am going to start my watercolor drawings soon as I want them to go with a post next month. I will just do a post like this recap post every so often, but now I would like to try to include a watercolor painting to match a photo (if I am able to do that) sometimes in my walking posts. I included the price tag to show how old the book was and yes, the way they displayed the price was odd. The Walter Foster drawing books are available on Amazon and the ones I looked at are around $10.00, same type of basic illustrations.
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yeah, it is so interesting to see the changes in the way prices are listed.
and we just got a holiday shopping catalogue in the mail for Amazon – first time to ever see one from them – and Linda, there are NO PRICES! just QR codes on every page.
I thought, “my my my, times be a changing” ha
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Yes, prices are crazy now. I’ve never received a holiday shopping catalogue from Amazon and I’ve been a Prime customer for a while – hmm. I have never scanned a QR code – I have to get with the times. 🙂
We have something new re: Amazon that is debuting this week, but not in my county. They have drone delivery, up to eight miles from their Amazon warehouse to your house/business and the item(s) can’t weigh more than eight pounds. Sounds kind of fun and futuristic, but even if you’re a Prime member, it costs an additional $4.99.
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well I almost think that the catalogue was for the former homeowner – she gets so many catalogues – like LLBean –
and that drone delivery sounds cool – and spooky – and convenient
let’s see how it goes – but the technology is just getting more and more advanced – eh?
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I used to get a ton of catalogues. I ordered a lot of clothes from Coldwater Creek when I still worked and that was before ordering online. My mother ordered jigsaw puzzles, so between the two of us, we had every clothing catalog and every toy and book catalog around. I found a non-profit corporation called Catalog Choice, which had a free service (or you could donate to them if you wished) and you listed all the catalogs you no longer wanted and they contacted the companies en masse on your behalf. I very rarely get catalogs now and the others stopped within a few weeks after I used the service.
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wow – that service sounds very helpful!
– and we likely do not need it because her old catalogues are not that many – just a handful – oh and I think Coldwater Creek is one of them that comes – hahah
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Yes, it’s a great service and if the catalogs ever get too burdensome, just hop on their site. I know that Coldwater Creek sends out a lot of catalogs. I loved their clothes and accessories and we got some holiday knickknacks for around the house as well.
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I will use that service foe sure if needed
And the good thing about blogging is that others might see it here in the comments
So it could help other folks too
Xxxx
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Yes, it would be a blessing if you got a lot of catalogs for sure. I had so many and one was terrible for sending the same catalog, just with a different cover, weekly – that was National Wildlife. I suspect people order online so much now, that the catalog overload is no longer a big problem it once was.
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🙂🙂
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It seems you’ve found the perfect companion hobby to your nature photography, Linda. 😎 And you definitely have a talent for sketching! 👌 I look forward to seeing your coloured versions.
Let the weather bitching begin! 😄 I’m with you in dreading the onset of winter, and November is a horrible month too – cold, damp, dreary…
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Thank you Debbie! I am thinking I would like to occasionally include individual drawings in my walking posts, for something different, more so during the Winter months when I have more time. I’m not inclined to do a whole post like this one just on one topic, although Julia said she would be having a landscape class in the Fall, so depending on what that class entails I might make an exception.
Oh, the weather – don’t get me started on it either! Today it was blustery (25-30 mph winds) and cold and we had rain early so I went out mid-day, but it was not enjoyable. All the weather folks I follow are throwing around a dusting of the “S” word for next Sunday or Monday. I went to that Halloween stroll on October 5th and we had been in the 80s, one day near 90F and of course was complaining as it was so hot!
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I’m sure your subscribers would love to see more of your artwork. I certainly would! 🙂
I heard the word “flurries” on last night’s weather forcast too. WTF?! 😲 Way too early!
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Thank you Debbie! I am eager to get started up again. I went on a walk at Lake Erie Metropark with the camera today – likely the last long walk for this year. The leaves were colorful, not vibrant though and it was beyond breezy … again. I now have four or five long walks where I’ve not even looked at the photos, so that will take some time too.
Flurries for you too – oh no! First, they said Sunday into Monday and now it is a chance on Sunday first, then again Sunday into Monday – two occurrences. Way too early for the white stuff!
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Wow Linda, I’m impressed! You did a fantastic job sketching, what fun!
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Thank you Diane! I thought it was more difficult to do the sketches as watercolor will hide any little mistakes, whereas the sketches are pretty much “what you see is what you get” and these were not step-by-step tutorials like the painting videos. But it was fun and I put all but a couple of swans into this post. Now to get around to painting the two birds …. looks like we’re getting much colder at the end of the week and a dusting of snow on Sunday. Ugh!
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Not bad. You have a knack for it.
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Thank you Kate! I am having fun with this hobby, though I thought the painting was easier and more forgiving than the pencil sketches. 🙂
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You are much more patient than I am, learning how to sketch and draw. I’ve watched a lot of watercolor tutorials…mostly short ones because, you know, my lack of patience. I like tutorials better than books…though I have a LOT of books and some of them have been really helpful. We both have some fun hobbies to get us through the winter.
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Dawn, I have to say that I thought the painting was easier than the sketching because we had step-by-step tutorials until the last dab of paint and here Julia gave us the basic sketches, then we saw her final sketch, so there was more for us as to filling in the blanks. Watercolor paint can “fix” any mistakes, but with pencil the mistakes are more glaring. I agree as to the tutorials – there are so many on YouTube and the “shorts” there are nice, but they go too fast most of the time. The Walter Foster drawing books I had from years ago are still available on Amazon which surprised me. I remember going to an art store with my father to get the supplies and the books.
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When you sketched a Bald Eagle, you have passed the course!
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No Bald Eagle in my lessons so far Wayne, but I will look for a tutorial when I’m more advanced and you can congratulate me then!
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and I shall wait……
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Thank you for your patience – you will be the first one to see it when it happens! 🙂
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Thanks Linda!
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I think you are doing very well with your sketches and drawings, Linda. I know practice helps, but I finally decided to give up learning to do it. I manage to find other ways to pursue art. Loved your final quote!
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Thank you Eilene! When it cooled off, I put everything away for a while to concentrate on getting some long walks in and photos taken to use for posts over the Winter/Spring. It does take up time though, so I have decided to give up learning French when my subscription runs out the end of this week . I enjoyed it and was fine learning and memorizing the vocabulary words and phrases, but dealing with learning the grammar was taking up too much time, so I’m giving it up and will concentrate more on sketching and painting. Glad you liked the quote!
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The Baltimore Oriole is a real bird – who knew? I’d think your commitment to the photography of birds and flowers pays off with your sketching abilities. You can picture your subjects without having to see them on paper!
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Thank you Dave! I hope one day I can sketch or paint a bird “in person” but I think that is a way off yet. I am going to concentrate more on sketching and painting over the Winter months. I took a time out in September and October when it finally cooled off and was great walking weather again, so I went out with the camera a lot. I went on a long walk today because trees with their colorful foliage is definitely winding down. The Baltimore Orioles are beautiful birds, bright orange and black, but the females, like most female birds, (except Blue Jays), have duller plumage, like this Oriole female. Feeding the Orioles is a big thing around here – people buy feeders where you slice an orange in half and offer that in the feeder, or you put up grape jelly (like humans eat or you can buy purple bird jelly) in a special feeder. Put it out – Orioles will come to chow down.
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Next thing you’re going to tell me is a Toronto Blue Jay is also a real bird 🙂
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Ha ha – yes, I will tell you that too Dave. I remember when the franchise was founded as my grandmother saved me all the swag that came in the “Toronto Star” newspaper. Yes, cardboard swag hats and headbands and some other items like signs. It was a big deal getting a baseball team for Toronto, home of the Maple Leafs, Argonauts and all the famous wrestlers at Maple Leaf Gardens. My grandparents were big hockey and wrestling fans.
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As a kid I always had a thing for the Montreal Expos, simply because they were a baseball team in Canada. I was sorry to see them move on. Like Toronto, they had some good years in the league.
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Gee, I can’t remember the Montreal Expos, but we moved from Canada to the States in 1966, but maybe I don’t remember them as they weren’t local. My parents never watched any sports and I had no siblings who would have played/watched sports and I don’t know much about sports, other than what I pick up by osmosis on the sports report on my all-news radio station. I hope the Blue Jays get a crack at the World Series again next year since they had so many fans outside of Canada.
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I am impressed by how good your sketches are, with no more time that you’ve been at it. I had a grandfather who took up oil paints when he retired, and his work was quite good. Sadly, my artistic abilities never seemed to develop, so I had best stick to other things.
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Thank you JP! I am going to work on more sketches and paintings over the Winter. I took a time out when it finally cooled off a little in September and October to enjoy some long walks with the camera. That’s great that your grandfather tried his hand at painting once he could devote more time to that hobby. You may remember that our fellow blogger Joni’s mom took up painting in her 80s after being inspired by watching Bob Ross painting on his TV show.
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Your sketches are great, the birds are all very well drawn (or sketched)! Good work on them and good for keeping at it. I have never tried sketching, painting is my thing. Maybe I should branch out.
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Thank you Susan! I actually thought the sketching/drawing was more difficult than the watercolor painting as it seems that errors are more glaring than with painting. I hope to work on more paintings over the Winter after I finish the two bird sketches. I like the more precise painting, rather than wet-on-wet as my colors seem to blur together … I guess practice makes perfect (or at least semi-perfect). 🙂
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Yes that’s true, I used to be a not that bad painter but then stopped for a few years and now I feel like I am starting from scratch. I finish a canvas and throw it out ! and try again lol
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It’s terrible how quickly we forget. We are having very cold weather the beginning of the week, so likely it’s the same for you, so we should both pick up the paintbrush again. 🙂 My house is small, so if I started having canvasses around and liked the painting enough to save, boy, I would have even less room than I have now!
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Yes I hear that! Our walls are already full with both our photographic work. But yup I am going to find the time to start painting again 😊
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You can convert one of your rooms to a gallery and have your own showing, rotating both of your pictures and your paintings around the room! There, you can proceed now. 🙂
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haha Thanks Linda! Great idea !
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Yes, go for it Susan!!
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Great job, Linda! I know it can be frustrating at the beginning but with some practice, it will become easier and easier for you. It’s obvious that you are well on your way!
I recently read an article that encouraged people to, instead of picking up their cell phone and scrolling when bored (maybe while waiting for someone), to have a sketch pad and sketch what they see around them. Not everyone wants to be an artist, but this habit encourages us to become more engaged and less dependent on our screens to keep us occupied. I thought that was a great suggestion!
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Thank you Janis! I am having fun with this hobby and hope to resume soon now that the cold weather has finally arrived. We had such wonderful Fall weather the last two months, that I got out and walked and took the camera along and put the art supplies away to do that. I like that idea too – taking along a small sketch pad and just drawing what you see. There are many artists doing streetscapes that are featured on YouTube. They just sit on a bench and draw away – it is impressive!
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Linda, I am impressed with your sketches!! You got talent in this area.
I like the garlic bulb and the kingfisher sketches with the slumped fish between its beaks. Realistic! I’m glad you found a teacher with teaching style that works for you. Why do they make it look so easy with drawing shapes?! My drawings look stiff and rigid…it lacks that fluidity and smoothness. I look through Ellis’ drawing books and try the step by step instructions. It’s so frustrating that it gets me mad. Not a good attitude to learn. I’ll leave the drawing for Ellis and me as her cheerleader.
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Thank you Esther! It is a fun hobby so far but I did put everything away for September and October to get in a lot of walking and taking photos and all my errands done before the snow flies. I did like the Kingfisher series and her different postures for the Kingfisher and its poor fish. I wonder if it was the same fish? I know that Julia said she was watching the Kingfisher and taking photos of it to draw later on. She does make it look so easy – the main shapes, add a beak, some feet and fill in the details … not as easy as that for me. These were not all step-by-step tutorials like the paint, so it was good experience. I thought it was easier drawing the picture and then painting it – this way, if you made a mistake, you could not paint over it. You should keep being Ellis’s cheerleader and encourage her since she enjoys art and does a good job!.
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Oh yes, I agree that drawing the picture first is much easier than painting the whole thing by itself. At least the drawing will give you an outline of what to paint.
It’s a great idea to take pictures and draw from those too. She seems like a helpful and skillful art teacher.
Ellis has lots of hobbies! It’s hard to keep up with them. She tired a vegetable minestrone soup in the hospital cafe and now she wants to make it for the 4-H favorite food events next February. We got all the ingredients for it today. We shall see how it turns out!
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That’s good that Ellis has a lot of hobbies. I hope the soup turns out. I remember before she was baking a cake. Are Ellis and Elliot going to take any more cooking classes?
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Yes, they are both taking backing class from 4-H. Last month they made apple crisp. This month they’re going to make pumpkin muffins.
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That’s great that they’re still interested in the baking classes and are “all in” and it wasn’t just a passing interest in baking. Both baking projects sound delicious!
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It’s lovely to see the progress you are making as you revive your interest in sketching and drawing birds. I bet your mom would be pleased that you looked at the Charles Tunnicliffe book again. I admire your persistence, Linda! I really like the first of your sparrow drawings.
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Thank you Barbara! I have really enjoyed this new hobby and it was a good time to immerse myself in it during the hottest part of the Summer. I put everything away once it cooled down and now, with the threat of snow, just an inch, on Sunday, I’ll be thinking again about pulling everything out for good now. You are right, my mom would be pleased that I finally looked at this Charles Tunnicliffe book and tried to do some sketches. I really like the book which she ordered from a catalog so it was a surprise for me. He had no tutorials, so it was a bit difficult, even though his simplest sketches, painted or otherwise, look so lifelike. I had some trouble with the seagull’s bill which looks more like lips. 🙂 I liked doing the sparrows too and I’m glad you liked that first one. I have to admit that Julia may have called them “sketches” but I did invest more time doing them, than just the few minutes that she suggested. I guess practice makes perfect, so I hope to be able to get more sketches and painting done now and pop a few in my posts from time to time, rather than a whole post of just sketches or paintings.
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I too am already longing for spring. I know I should wish my life away but… I enjoyed seeing your sketches. They are very good for just started out. I definitely recognized the garlic. 🙂
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Thank you Ruth – I wanted to try my hand at just sketching before I got back into the watercolor painting again. I put everything away once it cooled off enough to get some long walks with the camera done. I’m glad you could tell which one was the garlic, but you have had a lot of practice looking at and dealing with garlic. 🙂 I feel the same way about wishing my life away, but hearing about an early dusting of snow when just a few weeks ago we didn’t even need a jacket makes the upcoming Winter season more of a reality.
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Wow Linda….you are doing great! I must comment on those sketchbooks in the first section with the dog and cat. When I was going though Mom’s art things she had some of those same sketchbooks! They must have been popular at the time. I think there was a series of them in the paint store where she bought her supplies and she would buy one per visit.
I never thought about the difference between drawing and sketching until I got a copy of Van Goth’s Lost Arles Sketchbook from the library. It’s a sketchbook that someone discovered in the south of France that had been shoved in a closet a century ago and forgotten about. It’s full of that loose quick format of sketches with squiggly lines and dots and waves. While some Van Goth experts doubt the authenticity of the find, the sketches closely resemble some of his most famous paintings done in the area. So he sketched first to get the ideas down, while he was out on his walks, and then did either more detailed drawings later, or oil paintings. So his sketchbook was really his idea book for later….something you could do on your walks. Sometimes Mom would paint over an outline, but mostly she just painted without one.
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Thank you Joni! I actually thought it was more difficult doing the sketches/drawings than the paintings, as the paintings didn’t seem to be as precise since you’re covering up the original pencil outline you had made, so they were more forgiving. I did have fun sketching the birds, but Julia is much quicker than me and it took me a lot longer to finish each sketch since she didn’t do a step-by-step tutorial like for the watercolor paintings.
That’s interesting about the early sketchbooks being the same and I can remember going to an art store with my father to buy supplies after I had taken the free class that Summer. Back then you had to go to an art/paint store only for those items – now I can just get everything but how-to-draw books at the grocery store now. I put the price of the Walter Foster how-to-draw books since I priced them on Amazon for fun and they are over $10.00 apiece now. That’s also interesting about old sketchbooks that were found and it sure seems possible that not every painting was done in the studio, but outside, to be finished later. I would like to try that, going to a park and sketching, not at Council Point Park, but at another park where I don’t know anyone, human or otherwise. Julia keeps a nature sketchbook and I got several of her tutorials that I’ve not tried yet on how she does her sketchbooks, all done in a nature setting, many of it partial drawings (head or feet) or painting small objects like mushrooms. She takes notes which she puts on the drawings. She takes photos with her phone and does a quick sketch, then finishes it up at home if she doesn’t have time while out in the field. I am going to get back to drawing and painting again by mid-month as I enjoyed it and the days are waning for nice, long walks in the woods. I took one today as it was such a gorgeous day.
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That’s true – today we have cell phones for capturing images we might like to draw/paint. Some of Van Goth’s paintings were done on the beach as there is sand in the paint (must have been a windy day!), but in the Lost Arles Sketchbook there are the preliminary sketches of the boats out at sea. The seascapes are some of his more famous paintings. The sketchbook was found in an old house near where he had rented rooms in 1890, so it was a fascinating book.
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Joni, I was reading up on this book after you mentioned it in the previous comment. I would think it would be fascinating to find this sketchbook after all those years. I wonder if he was distracted when he left it behind and then just redrew the sketches from memory?
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No, when the sketchbook was full, Van Goth gifted it back to the cafe owners/friends Giroux who had given it to him when he first came to Arles, and rented rooms from them. By then he had already painted the paintings and had no further need for it, and maybe an inkling he would be famous some day? It got shoved on a shelf, and later Madame Giroux died, her niece died, then the area was bombed in WW2 so it ended up in another old building nearby with another branch of the family. It’s an old accounting ledger which they had given him to use as a sketchbook, as he was always short on funds. There’s quite a bit about it on Wikipedia and lots of newspaper articles on the art worlds reaction to the find if you do a google search. I got my copy from the library, (its quite large like the original ledger) but the book is out of print now, and costs $300-$400 second hand on e-bay, amazon etc. It has about a hundred pages of the background history and then 65 of the actual sketches. They based a movie on it too, which I watched and found boring. The Van Goth Museum in Amsterdam doubts it’s authenticity, which is why two Van Goth scholars/experts decided to publish it to get it out there for the art world to see. I don’t know if you know much about Van Goth, but he was crazy, probably bipolar, spend a lot of time in psych hospitals but yes, a creative genius. The sketches are loose and fluid and full of waves and squiggles denoting certain areas, so you can tell they were quickly sketched, but correspond with many of his famous paintings.
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Thank you for this additional information Joni. The book sounds interesting. I didn’t read that much of the highlights that I saw this. I have read about him being somewhat crazy and cutting off his ear. But still he was a painting genius; but there are other creative people who are a little “out there” and people just say “well, they are creative, so let them be.”
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Well done!
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Thank you Linda – it’s been a fun learning experience. Now back to watercolors as we transition to Winter – we already have an inch of snow in my area, but 15 inches in the UP!
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Snow on the ground already just blows my little Southern mind.
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Yes, the news and weatherman have been talking about this for days – 15 inches of snow in Marquette is still going to happen. In my area, they say just on grassy surfaces, but other counties nearby will get a slushy few inches. Too early for the white stuff!
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You are really coming along with this new venture. How fun it must be learning something new like this. I can’t wait to see you get into the colors. I really like the sparrow image. 🙂
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Thank you Sandra! It’s been fun and I really enjoy learning with Julia. I did some mute swans and their young too, but they were really basic with no feather detail, so I left them out. I was glad to switch to the sparrow sketches after doing so many kingfishers. 🙂 I’m looking forward to getting back into painting again as the weather gets gloomier and colder.
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