Low Water

Drought conditions have been present in parts of Iowa, in varying levels of severity, for about three years. The river I see most often is the Raccoon, which meanders through a floodplain north of my home studio called Waterworks Park. The river is the source of tap water for Des Moines and though it hasn't run dry so far as I know, the level has been low for months.

Not long ago the Saturday group went to the park and I took time to draw a bend of the river that comes near one of the park roads. 

"Low Water," wc/ink on paper 5.5x9

Sunny Florida

Thanksgiving week in Florida is sunny and warm--70 degrees at 7am. This is the view behind my son's home--mangroves and palm trees. The two red plants are Hawaiian ti plants--often with brilliant red leaves.. 

"Out Back, Bradenton," wc on paper 5x6

Fruitful November

With the change of seasons, autumn colors come to the forefront. Depending on climate, local conditions, rainfall and probably many other factors, the colors of fall may be bright or dull, transient or long-lasting. Locale has a lot to do with how foliage changes. Areas with lower temperatures or less daily sunshine have much different patterns of color. 

Here in central Iowa the brilliant colors began going dull in late October so that by Thanksgiving the trees were bare or clothed in dark rusty hues. Here and there, especially in protected areas, some undegrowth and smaller trees were still pale yellow. Reds and scarlets were all gone. But the weather during the first three weeks of November was surprisingly mild with high temperatures into the sixties and only a few nights below freezing. That made outdoor sketching easy and enjoyable. Here are a few.

Notice how trees lost their leave and how colors evolved early in the month. 

"Union Park," wc and ink on paper 6x9

"Along Woodland Ave," wc and ink on paper, 8x10

"On Woodland," wc and ink on paper, 8x10

 

Near Dubuque

"Near Dubuque," oil on canvas, 8x16

The foliage along the Mississippi River can be spectacular in autumn. This new panoramic landscape shows the view across the river toward Illinois. Reference photo kindly supplied by Karen Stewart.

Autumn Watercolors

If you read this blog you know that many Saturday afternoons our group of sketchers goes outdoors to work. During November I've been out with them twice so far--the weather has been salubrious--so here are my two Saturday sketches so far. They're both about 6x9 in one of my bound sketchbooks.

"Greenwood Park lagoon, 110423" wc on paper

"Union Park, 111123"

Inktober Wrapup

"Saddled Up," ink on paper (crow quill)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October is gone and with it another month of pen and ink practice. No reason it couldn't/shouldn't continue, so we'll see about that. In the meantime, Inktober turned out to be a productive month of ink work. 

As I noted in the beginning, many of my first efforts were done using technical pens (see the first few posts of this seeries). As a review, technical pens have a fixed-diameter point that releases ink well and makes good, dark, uniform lines. In their infancy technical pens were used for technical drawings (when they were done by hand) to allow for excellent, consistent lines. Today of course they're a primary pen for many draftspeople. 

I also wanted to practice with the ancient standby, dip pens. To that end I also did a number of works using a crow quill nib--a metal nib that looks like a founatain pen tip (more on that below), but must be dipped into an inkwell or bottle every so often to reload the pen. These old-time pens are difficult to master but allow an enormous variety of line widths and allow the artist or calligrapher to make tapering and swooping lines. I posted several of those previously and "Saddled Up" (above) is another, done with a crow quill and liquid ink.

Finally, I also wanted to work with a fixd-nib fountain pen because liquid ink is most interesting and also requires care in use. These last two were done with an inexpensive medium-nib fountain pen. A fountain pen is certainly more convenient that a simple steel nib since there's no dipping, but the pen I used for these two studies had a nib that was less flexible, so line variations were minimal, even with increased pressure. It may require more searching to find a fountain pen with a tip more suitable for the sort of drawing I favor.

"Anchor Chain," fountain pen on papeer

"Scratchy," fountain pen on paper

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Inktober 2023 Links

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Even More Inktober

Upstream

"Upstream," watercolor on paper, about 6x9

This is another watercolor of the Middle Raccoon River, looking generally northward or upstream from the River House at Whiterock Conservancy. 

Middle Raccoon

My residency at Whiterock ended last weekend, and properly so if you factor in the weather. The first ten days were simply glorious--warm, sunny, not very windy--and the landscape just raged with color. The yellows, golds, rusts, glowing scarlets and more were astonishing. While trying to capture those colors my mind kept repeating that no one would believe it if paint could capture their intensity (it can't). 

Durng the residency much of my time was observation and sketching, my attempts to fix things in my visual library. Watercolor sketching is quite useful for that. 

The Middle Raccoon River runs through it, shallow but strong despite our current drought conditions. The foliage colors below the white rock bluff were incredibly varied, and for that matter, so were the water's reflections.