Tag Archives: sketch journal

Tooth of the Lion

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dandelion sketch

"Coming Soon to a Garden Near You", mixed media sketch by Kerry McFall

Much-maligned, nutritious, and gorgeous, the weeds are beginning to smile up from the soggy lawns in Corvallis.  Dandelions are the brightest: petals like a yellow mane, toothy points on the leaves, and I love that little cushion right in the middle of the blossom.  I spent many hours dissecting dandelions as a little girl, sitting cross-legged on my grandmother’s lawn caught up in the sweet scent, amazed by the “milk” that appeared on the stems after picking… and the minute my mother saw my sticky hands, I spent many minutes scrubbing away the dandelion goo.  Simple pleasures.

My New Favorite Color

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sketch of lichen

"Windfall Lichen", mixed media by Kerry McFall

The heavy snows last week brought a good-size limb hurtling into the back yard from the neighbor’s giant fir.  When I went to see the damage, I had to pull the sharp end out of the mushy ground, where it looked like it had been driven in by a pile driver… yikes.  The moral: don’t stand under trees during heavy snowfall.

I counted at least five different types of lichen, and one type of moss, growing on the limb.  Such gorgeous colors when you look closely!  And serendipity had a hand in the palette because I had just found my new favorite color among the colored pencils in the OSU Bookstore art department on the same day: Pale Sage by Prismacolor.  Perfect!

Interested in a print, or an embellished fabric print?  Buy Now!

We Thought Winter Was Over…

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March Snow, mixed media sketch by Kerry McFall

Obviously, winter had one last blast to blow at us, which is very strange for March in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.  But Snow Days are always a good time to slow down, and this one gave me a chance to add a Buy Now page to my website – if you’d like a print of any sketches, you can pay with PayPal – check it out.  Coming soon – an Etsy site with my sketches on greeting cards, and mixed-media paintings for sale!

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Mistletoe at Finley, mixed media, by Kerry McFall

Working at Muddy Creek school over the last couple of weeks gave me the opportunity to take the long way home via Finley Wildlife Refuge several times.  And the sun was shining – whoa!

Finley is my “church”, a place for quiet meditation, contemplation, rejoicing in nature even in the barest months of winter.  Huge flocks of geese rise as one with no prelude, and give voice like no other choir.  The oaks are the altars, the firs are the spires pointing to heaven.  The elk slip in and out of the thickets and meadows, the spirits of the ancestors.  Quiet pools mirror the sky in the marshes.  Bald eagles drift through now and then to remind me that there could be angels… but then just for the hell of it they buzz down over the resting geese and send them thundering skyward again.  And it turns out that even the humble mistletoe has a place in ancient myth and religious symbology, at least according to Google.  Beautiful.  My humble and sincere thanks to everyone who had a part in preserving this sacred place in the Willamette Valley.

Sheep Smiles

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sketches of sheep

"Sheep Smiles", colored pencil by Kerry McFall

The OSU Sheep Barns are literally a five minute drive up the hill from downtown Corvallis, so I’m not sure why it’s been at least 10 years since we ventured up there.  But the spirit moved us this weekend, so we treated ourselves to watching the wonders and terrors of nature at work.

The layout is a little different than it was years back – fences keep you way back, and there are lots of signs about germ transmission, and hand-washing stations… but the smell of sheep poop still pervades the cold damp air, and there’s plenty of bleating and baaing.  The lambing season is upon us, so it’s a popular outing for families with small children.  I’m convinced that lambs receive random signals from outer space which send them leaping and jumping for no apparent reason, surprising even themselves from the look of it.  “Gamboling” is just the perfect word for that.  The mother sheep look a bit dazed, but the shape of their mouths makes it look like they are smiling!

The pregnant ewes, some of them literally wider than they are high, even seem to smile… maybe they spike their hay up there, because it sure looks miserable to me.  Ah, sweet mystery of life – what a convoluted process, this birthing and dying!

A Question of Purple

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Purple Finch on bird feeder

"Purple Finch", mixed media by Kerry McFall

Many thanks to Schmidt’s Garden Center for granting me permission to work from their photographs!  This little seed-cruncher was featured in their most recent online newsletter, and I fell in love with the patterns in his feathers.  Their newsletter always has bright photos and interesting discussion, a pleasant break from a world full of less uplifting news.

I’ve always wondered about who decided to call this bird a Purple Finch.  In my opinion, it’s not purple at all.  It’s pink.  There might be a few purple shadows, but this guy is definitely pink – and yes, I did get carried away just a little with the color intensity, but I’m not striving for reality, just that zing I always get when a flash of color flies past.  The Cornell Lab of Ornithology web site says, “The Purple Finch is the bird that Roger Tory Peterson famously described as a “sparrow dipped in raspberry juice.” “  Right on!

Searching for Spring

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sketch of helleborus

"Helleborus Orientalis", mixed media by Kerry McFall

My up-the-street neighbor’s sidewalk border is a gorgeous mish-mash of last autumn’s brown leaves, a stump covered with fungus, and deep purply-red helleborus orientalis.  At least I think that’s what it is – unlike the few crocus in my own border, it is not shyly peeking out with the baby slugs.  It’s just Out There, waving in the wind, defying the spring snows, clearly saying, “Here I am if you’re looking for spring!”  Thank goodness, we’re all ready for some color!

I’ve been heads down busy with a school artist in residence quilt project, finishing the last of my Call and Response pieces for the “unveiling” coming up on Sunday, trying to keep up with the Art Journal class I was taking from Lauren Ohlgren, and of course, work.  So it was nice for a few hours this afternoon to put it all aside and simply sit at the dining table and sketch and paint.  I didn’t even notice that Sparky had jumped on the table and was lapping up the lavender-tinted water where I cleaned my brushes… goofy cat.  I guess she’s ready for some color, too!

Sushi

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sketch of sushi plate

"Sushi", mixed media sketch by Kerry McFall

I don’t really care for sushi, but I admire the way it is often presented: fresh bright colors, lots of salmon pinks, avocado greens, soft sticky rice.  And the shine of the sauces makes me want to stick my finger in the little puddles – raw fish leaves me cold, but I love those salty-sweet sauces!  Speaking of shine, I need to find a better solution than this for adding highlights “after the fact” – I’ve never had much luck with masking fluid, but maybe I need to go buy a new bottle.  That Chinese white watercolor that was handy just doesn’t make the highlight look as liquid and lovely as I had hoped.

Leaning more…?

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"Redwood Components", by Kerry McFall, mixed media - digital image

One of the big trees in the park across the street seems a bit out of kilter lately – the left side branches droop while the right side reaches skyward, and although I think it has always listed a bit to the south, it seems more pronounced.  I wandered over there a few days ago and picked up bits and pieces of bark, scaly needles, and cones while I talked to my neighbor about my suspicions that it wasn’t as healthy as it could be…

But leaning or not, the cones are beautiful.  They look like rosettes if you regard them point blank.  The old ones – last year’s? – are swollen to twice the size of the newer cones, black with moisture, rich with moss.  My sketch is an exercise in turning the shapes into graphic representations – the motion of drawing the needles became like a decorative embroidery stitch, which I really like.  The little border cones would make nice decoration for… well, who knows?  So I fiddled with it a bit in Photoshop, added some triangles, used the Texturize tool to add more of a fabric look… and voila, fodder for a fabric design perhaps?

February “Bouquet Garni”

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"Gerbera Daisies in Under 40 Minutes", digitial image by Kerry McFall

Bouquet Garni is usually a bundle of herbs used to flavor a soup or stew, I know.  But on Friday I needed something to fill out a bunch of leggy Gerbera Daisies that I picked up at the grocery store (funny how you get them home and there don’t seem to be nearly as many blossoms once you take that wrapper off), so I ventured out into the bog in my backyard in search of greenery.  I found several stems of slug-chewed mint, one twig of rosemary long enough to hold its own, and some glorious purple-veined Swiss chard… not too bad for the gloomy depths of February.

I spent the next 40 minutes breathing in the herbs and splashing on a watercolor base, then filling in with colored pencil.  It was bright and colorful, and after an additional 10 minutes in Photoshop I pronounced it “done”.  Anybody need cheering up?  Here ya go!