Quilting and other Things

Last Saturday was the fourth of the nature sketching classes and this time it was at Colonel Samuel Smith Park .  One of the fun things with this class has been to go to different places in Toronto.  Some I've been to before and some its the first time.  I walked through the edge of the park last summer when I walked part of the waterfront trail into Toronto and then again in December when I went out with some friends for a photography day. Saturday rained most of the morning but the Humber College student building was near where we were going to be so the class was scheduled to go ahead.  I arrived wearing my rain pants and jacket for hiking but should have had my hat and sunglasses.  Again, it was a lot of gesture sketches trying to capture birds in nature except the owl and the kestrel.  There was a bird festival in progress and one of the places had birds on exhibit.  The owl had been hit by a car and had a badly broken wing.  I'm not sur...

This past Saturday was the second of the Nature Sketching classes.  This time we meet at the Toronto Botanical Gardens (Edwards Gardens) and went down to sketch beside Wilket Creek in the ravine. Our naturalist talked about invasive species and how important the ravines are to the ecosystem.  The beautiful grasses that I love to take pictures of are an invasive species -- they grow quickly and with a deep dense root system that really takes over and area.  Since the seeds are so light in the feathery heads, it also spreads like wildfire.  Its not native to this area so nothing or atleast not many animals will eat it so there are no natural predators.  I hadn't thought about plants having predators to help keep them under control.  Invasive grasses (different location) In the last century many ravines were filled in, often with garbage, without thought or understanding of their importance.  Ravines are carved by rivers.  In this case, r...

I saw a Facebook ad for a nature sketching class run by the Bateman Foundation.  It runs for 8 Saturday's between now and the end of June.  The class was s described here:   https://www.naturesketch.org/naturesketch-club/adult-naturesketch-club-toronto/ As is my custom, I debated for a while then decided yes I did want to sign up so registered on Thursday.  Yesterday was the first class and we met at Allan Gardens in downtown Toronto.  I'd never been before and will need to make a return visit.  The class was in the children's greenhouse.   The talk this week was about cacti and succulents.    The first exercise was to study a plant for 30 seconds then go back to the table and draw from memory for 3-5 minutes.  The 30 seconds seemed long but when I went to sketch, I found that I'd studied the shape but not counted the leaves or looked closely at how they related from one round to the next.    Mine turned ou...

I went into the museum today to see the items on display from the ROM episode of Museum Secrets. There were two curators available for Q&A sessions this afternoon. One for the head dress and one for the baby mummies. ROM Museum Secrets Originally uploaded by imhalca This is a sandstone formation. Its in the ROM's mineral collection. I think I'll be going back to see it again soon. ROM: Gogotte Originally uploaded by imhalca

I had a chance to go through the terracotta warriors exhibit at ROM twice.  I'd seen a exhibit in London a few years ago during a visit with Karen.  The nice thing was the exhibit was different and focused on other aspects. There were other emperors after the First Emperor who also had warriors buried with them but no where near the scale of the First Emperor.  These are some of the motifs that caught my eye during the first visit. These are some of the warriors that caught me eye during the second visit.

I started at Limehouse today and walked up to km 25.2 --by the road on the way there and by the proper trail on the way back. Going by the road cut out a couple of km. Then I went back to km 14.4 where I turned around last week. It was about 19km round trip (since I did the road bits in a couple of spots to save distance). Where the side trail from the parking lot joined the main trail, there was tree fungus on the tree by the sign. Starting at Limehouse put me back at the Hole-in-the-wall . The first photo gives a glimpse of the lower ladder from the top of the trail. The second is standing a the top of the ladders and looking down. When you come off the bottom ladder, the trail turns immediately left and goes between a split in the rock. On the way back I sat and sketched the upper ladder I managed to turn the wrong way when I got down to the next section of the trail. I missed the blazes on the tree again. I really need to watch the trees as well as my feet. This sig...

Exercise 4 was about copying different line styles from masters. Then draw something of your own. My hand was holding the book so was handy. At the symphony last night, I sat right in front of the cellos (row 3 on the main floor and had a pretty good view of the basses as well. During the warm up, I drew on my program. During intermission, I got my book out of my purse.

I got the book in 2004 and this is one of the pre-instruction drawings from then. I've worked through bits and pieces of the book and workbook off and on since. Here's the most recent set of pre-instruction drawings. I think I need to get out the class notes on drawing faces.

DSC01806_edited-1 Originally uploaded by imhalca Last month I went to the Royal Ontario Museum ( ROM ) to see the Trypilian special exhibit. I liked the designs on the vases and the figurines. No photos were allowed but I had fun sketching some of the things that caught my eye.

This was left over from Mom & Dad's visit. Dad likes onion in his salad. I don't. The diced onion went in a little dish so he could have some.

I'm reading Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and working my way through the exercises. The first hand picture (holding the sketch book) was done just as I was starting the chapter that has you tracing your hand on a view plan. The second hand picture is after tracing my hand several times. I didn't do the exercise correctly as I traced the hand then drew it. Forgot I was suppose to transfer the markings to the page. The steps, nesting tables and end tables are all after reading the chapter on perspective and measuring something in the scene with your pencil and drawing everything relative to that measurement. Callee doesn't approve of my trying to trace her on the view plane or my trying to measure the distance between her ears relative to the height of her ears. Holding Sketch Book June 28 Sleeping Callee Cat June 29 EDM # 10 - Hand after tracing on view plane June 29 EDM # 61 - Nesting Tables July 10 EDM # 23 - My Foot while curled up watching TV July 11 E...