Red-Checked Cordon Bleu - Kenya Bird

This strangely named little sparrow sized bird was my first day light bird in Kenya.  It was on a small trail near my hotel with monkeys.  It was very bright interesting looking bird which definitely caught my eye.  I looked through the bird guide book and easily IDed it since it was so unique looking.  It is the first daylight bird because the night birds were these huge ugly Marabou Storks in these trees in downtown Nairobi on the way from the airport.  It was a little scary and very Hitchcock "Birds: movie looking.  I will post the Marabou Stork later and you will understand.

Astilbe flower

I jump between oil painting and drawing.  Usually I return to drawing as frustration hits in the painting.  It seems to sharpen the painting and always is a good thing to work on as your drawing skills can never be too good.  This is an Oil Painting exercise done in about 1 hour to get me back into the painting mode.  I have roughed in the basic colors, the flowers are ok, but I think I will let this sit and I will lighten and better structure the leaves.  The background will get a more varied treatment to add depth to it.

Guinea Hen

I saw Guinea Hens in Mombasa, Kenya.  They are squat strange dinosaur looking things, especially with the horn on there heads.  They are very efficient at cleaning your grass of insects.

Grey-Crowned Crane

This is a quick sketch of Grey-Crowned Cranes.  I used colored pencils and quickly captured the likenesses and I tried to get the movements.

Lioness

One of my favorite animals is the Lioness.  We saw these in Kenya and they definitely are the royalty of the Maasai Mara.  We saw about twelve of them to include two who had killed a gazelle.  They had blood on their mouths as they cooled down from the heat of the chase.  Below is a picture of some of the Lionesses and some young males.

California Gull

Tonight's sketch is the California Gull.  It is the state bird of Utah since they nest out on the Salt Lake and they ate the crickets which threatened the first crops the Mormons planted back in 1847-48 time frame.  The Gulls always hang out near the beaches and I remember them hanging out in Denver on occasion especially during bad summer weather.

Wolves - S Design by Ernest Thompson Seton

I chose this simple sketch based off a Turn of the Century (1900s) artist Ernest Thompson Seton design.  This is an example of an S shaped design.  The S starts with the Buffalo across the horizon.  The farthest wolf and the nearer wolf turned 3/4 away from the viewer completes the downward movement and begins the middle cross of the S.  The wolf tracks and the two buffalo skulls finish the S design's bottom.  This type of design leads the viewer's eyes through the scene and creates interest.  I will use some of these simple but effect sketches to show you, the reader some of the great things going on in some of these pieces of art.