Just returned from five days in Algonquin.  I finally cracked open the Moleskine watercolour sketchbook that’s been gathering dust above my desk since I bought it last year.  A good way to kill a lazy afternoon at the campsite.

Camp

"Gear Tree"

Because after two hours of hanging around, he never showed himself.  Nice birding location, though — lots of breeding activity for being so late in the season, and nothing around but open fields and rows of windmills stretched across the horizon.

A Black-billed Cuckoo was a nice find — I haven’t seen one in a few years, and this one was obliging enough to remain out in the open (mostly).

A few sketches of the locals — Chipping Sparrow and American Robin.

On the drive back to the cottage, I happened across an Upland Sandpiper perched on the hydro wires just south of Hepworth (another species I haven’t encountered in some time).  I find these birds hilarious — nervous pin-heads with a call like the Dilophosaurus in Jurassic Park.

Some sketches from last weekend: Savannah Sparrows in the fields at Grass Lake.

The fields had been mowed and baled, so the Bobolinks had already departed (boo), but a family of Eastern Bluebirds kept me entertained.  The four fully fledged young scrambled up and down the round bales, snapping at insects or snuggling up together in between Dad’s visits.

Spent a beautiful long weekend up at the family cottage.  Sunday morning I hit Bruce Caves for a bit of birding (and to do my part in keeping the local blackfly population well fed).  A voice I couldn’t quite place led me to a male Mourning Warbler singing in the poplars.  Across the clearing, a Black and White Warbler answered.  Although the former was a better find, I spent far more time with the latter — BAWWs sport a plumage that is a lot more fun to put down in pencil.

Lots of singing birds about, but low on the warbler side at Currie Tract this morning.  Only six warbler species rustled up, and no Chestnut-sided to be seen (unusual for Currie at this time of year).  Nice to get out, though — for once, the weather and my schedule were both cooperative.

Pair of Scarlet Tanagers, Blue Jay, female Rose-breated Grosbeak and Blue-winged Warbler.

Right on schedule, the local Red-winged Blackbirds appeared on territory on the 11th of this month (it always amazes me how they figure out when to show up — I can’t remember what day of the week it is most days).  I finally got a chance to get out for some sketches on Sunday.  Spring begins with blackbirds.

And a big thanks to the folks who gave me a boost after I sat in the car for an hour at the side of the road, sketching … with my lights on.  I AM A MORON, YES.

As Canadians, our patriotism is usually humbly brandished, so it’s nice to see us let loose every once in awhile.  I was fortunate enough to be watching when we achieved both our first gold on home turf and our final and record-breaking fourteenth, and it would be impossible for any Canadian to not be swept up by the enthusiasm displayed by thousands of fans celebrating in the streets day and night.  Congrats to all of the athletes — you’ve made us proud.

[Above drawing done in PaintTool SAI.  The character is Canada (aka Matthew Williams), from Himaruya Hidekazu's (very amusing) historical allegory Axis Powers Hetalia.]

Some unfortunate news this morning: Mr. P, the Phainopepla that has been hanging around Brampton since November, finally succumbed to the scarcity brought on by our harsh northern climate.  Sightings had become very infrequent, and finally late last week he was spotted low in a bush, struggling to harvest rose hips before falling to the ground.  He was taken to a songbird rehabilitation center, where he was eating well and seemed to be recovering, but sadly did not make it in the end.

Sketch done in PaintTool SAI.

Mehhh.  I’d really, truly, honestly intended to get out and do some birding yesterday, but felt too crummy to go anywhere.  Felt even worse this morning, so I called in sick and instituted my usual home remedy of lounging on the couch, drinking tea and watching cartoons.  Loki provided some convenient sketch fodder while shuffling around the apartment looking for furniture to climb and personal possessions to dismantle.  I’ll have to try again to get out next weekend — maybe Burlington, if the weather isn’t too cold.

I wish traditional media had layers.  And an undo button.  The entire process is much less frustrating this way.

Aside from isolating different areas of the artwork for each stage of the process, layers also double as progress snapshots.  The click of a button can peel back each stage all the way to the original rough sketch:

Second layer — the line art:

I drew this one up specifically to play around with Manga Studio’s colour tools.  I had to hunt down a few tutorials for this — layers and palettes are in greyscale mode by default, and it took me awhile to figure out why I couldn’t lay any colours down.  The dodge and burn tools were also hidden away, but I eventually found them in a submenu on the toolbox.  Once I got myself set up, the tools were easy enough to use (though I still have a lot to learn about digitally colouring line art, I think).

The final version, dressed up with with a Sagan quote.  I have some slightly more ambitious science-related illustration stuff in the queue.  This was a fun warmup.