Although a day or so late from Amazon, my new sketchbook and watercolor pencils arrived. I’m sad that they arrived after we left for Buellton (in wine country) because it would have been nice to sketch while I was there. Alas.
After doing some research into what other bird sketchers use, I decided that watercolor pencils made more sense for me than actual watercolors. They dry faster and are easier to transport. I tried using the watercolor pencils on my Canson Sketch Pad but the paper warps too much and the Micron pens bleed too much once you apply water to them. I decided that I needed to get a real watercolor sketchbook, but I wanted something smaller so I went with a Watercolor Moleskine 5 x 8.25 and I’m pretty happy with the results. I can do a small sketch in drafting pencil, ink with Micron pens, and then cover with watercolor pencils without the pen ink running. The watercolor pencils seem to blend better on the watercolor paper too.
I’ve been practicing with the new tools by drawing the birds outside my window. We recently had our backyard re-landscaped so we included some more bird friendly plants. The hummers have been loving the kangaroo paws. Having the kangaroos so close to the feeder has caused the hummers that do come around to be a little more aggressive to the birds at the seed feeder but the birds seem to brush off the little punks.
I’ll keep testing out the new tools and try them out making some larger sketches. I’m unsure of what kind of style I want to go for but I’m liking this wobbly sketch style. I tried making some more like the pencil sketches with the wide outer line but it just didn’t look as good. The pencils seem to work better in a smaller format but I bet with some more work I could get the style to scale better. Hope you enjoy the new work and we’ll see where it goes.
Birding Ninja 