Sketching Hummingbirds

Keeping with my 2013 commitment to stay busy sketching if I'm not painting, I started a little hummingbird sketch tonight....
 

Pen & Marker Sketch in progress

 

 

 

 

 

Hummingbirds are the most amazing little creatures and photography is the only real way that you're going to get one to sit still long enough to sketch him.  So I'm using a photo taken by a photographer friend of mine, Doug Beck.  You can see some of his amazing photos at http://desertbighorn.smugmug.com/. 

In the Las Vegas area we are blessed to enjoy 4 species of hummingbirds, and come the cold weather don't think you should take in your hummingbird feeder because 2 of the species stay here year round. Yes, we have backyard entertainment year round here in the Mojave Desert!  Remember one of the best things you can do to paint with skill is to pick up a pencil and practice drawing with skill.  So along with all those other resolutions to loose weight, read your Bible and show kindness- make sure you include a sketchbook in there somewhere.  You will be blessed if you do!

Joshua Trees are not Trees

You can't consider capturing the rugged beauty of the Mojave Desert without at some point making a study of the Joshua Tree...I always considered that the Joshua tree to be part of the cactus family. I mean the desert is full of cactus and succulents and you would assume that this spiny tree must fit in there some where. This morning I am waking up in Yucca Valley, California after a night of heavy rain, inspired by the raw beauty of the Joshua Tree that is standing outside my room. I hadn't noticed that the spines actually have a blue green tint with just a hint of silver, rather than what my memory sees as a much darker shade of green, almost an olive green.

After consulting the Joshua Tree National Forest website, which I would consider to be a very reliable source, I learned that for many years the Joshua Tree was considered to be part of the lily family. Who would have guessed that one? As I read on I find that recently, some really smart people, working from some government grant obviously, decided to test that assumption and after some DNA testing we are now educated and informed because the Joshua Tree is really part of the Agave family. This information confirms what I have always known in my heart....The Joshua Tree can't be a lily!

Regardless of the genealogy, surname or classification, the Joshua Tree is a main feature in the landscape in the desert that I call home. You won't paint many desert landscapes without having to consider the irregular and spiny shape of this desert plant along with it's very close relative, the Yucca. Both plants have beautiful spears covered with greenish white flowers in the spring. I found this website to be very informative and covered the very interesting details about where it got it's name and the important relationship it has with the yucca moth.

Early in my return to painting I tried to capture a scene at beautiful Red Rock State park. I'm inspired today to reprint this scene because in the past two years of constant painting, I have improved my techniques.

 

Here is a more recent painting that I have completed that contains a yucca plant in it. 

Mojave Blooms

Spring in the Mojave desert is certainly different from that of the colorful masses of flowering trees and blooming undergrowth that I grew up with in Central Missouri, but there is a transformation that takes place, even if it isn't on as grand of scale.  This is my rendition of just one of the many flowering cacti that are native to Nevada.  I think these are called "Strawberry Hedgehog" or "Claret Cup Hedgehog" Cactus.  Whatever the name, they are to be admired from a distance... or better yet, from a beautifully framed canvas.    

Mojave Blooms is 16 x 20 painted in Acrylic. It is an original painting created in my studio in Las Vegas, Nevada