Category: Places

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Art Bay Area Parks Colored pencil art Drawing

Bird Head Bobbing (Why?): Meadowlark Translation

Meadowlarks head bobbing and puffing up

Have you ever noticed the weird way birds walk, bobbing their heads back and forth? Watching the birds in the video below about the return of meadowlarks to my beloved park, Point Isabel, I once again wondered why birds do that.

Instead of letting the thought go as usual, I decided to follow my curiosity. And that lead me down unexpected rabbit holes, to some fun drawing, joy and surprises. (Yes, I’m easily amused.)

Video by Mary Barnsdale at Pt. Isabel, Richmond CA

First, I learned that the head bobbing is called “translation” (huh?). Yep, same word, (almost) completely different meaning. “Translation” as used in biomechanics means “moving an object linearly from point A to point B, no turning.”

Translation and Optical Stabilization

I wondered if birds were doing something similar to spotting—what dancers and ice skaters do to avoid dizziness when spinning. Dancers focus their eyes on one spot as their body turns, then quickly snap their head to focus on that spot again.

But nope. As you can see in my diagram above, the bird’s head stays still in one place as its body and feet move forward. Then the head snaps forward to catch up. They do this for image stabilization, not to prevent dizziness.

When humans move forward and the scenery changes (or when seeing something move towards us), our eyes constantly make micro-moves to focus. (See this YouTube video for more about human vs bird vision when walking and flying.)

But birds’ eyes, on the sides of their heads, can’t move like that. They have to move their heads instead. Without “translation” their vision would be super blurry, and they wouldn’t be able to spot food or predators.

Meadowlark sketch in colored pencils
Western Meadowlark, colored pencil in A4 sketchbook

Nerding out (birding out?) even more: Birds have from 13-25 neck vertebrae. Meadowlarks have 14, twice as many as humans and giraffes who only have 7! Birds’ necks are so flexible they can look behind themselves without moving their bodies (think owls)!

Nature and evolution are so amazing.

Bird sketching practice

PSA: We humans also do a forward head bob when we stare at screens, sometimes spending all day in that position. For every 1 inch our head is forward of our shoulders, the load on the neck increases by ~10 pounds. That puts 30-50 pounds (when head is 2-4″ in front of shoulders), leading to headaches, neck pain, muscle imbalances, etc. Bob it back!

Bonus (?) for making it to the end: For the past year I’ve sketched a quickie self portrait every night, right before bed. This is what happened after the day I’d spent immersed in bird things. Totally silly and improbable anatomy!

Selfie as a bird
Categories
Art Bay Area Parks Drawing Dreams Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages

Wordles and Pictures: Back to Journaling

Sketches of two dogs and a lady in a dress as illustrations for Wordle “Adopt” and “Frock”
Daily Dreams and Wordles Illustrated (Frock and Adopt)

When I started my blog, JanasJournal.com in 2006, it was an illustrated daily journal where I shared my world and my creative journeys through many different media. Now I’ve returned to my journaling roots and I’ve found inspiration from a surprising source: the daily Wordle puzzle, which I solve and then illustrate each day.

A view from my favorite park along the SF Bay, Point Isabel

While my journeys may have become more interior thanks to the pandemic, illustrating where my imagination and dreams take me keeps me entertained. But I’m also including sketches from places I go in real life, like Point Isabel above, a huge park along the SF Bay where dogs can run free, roll in the grass, splash in mud puddles and rinse off in the bay.

Wordle: Unlit and Dance

I’m using a page-a-day Hobonichi “Cousin” journal with weird, very thin, lightly-gridded paper along with fountain pens, drawing pens, watercolors and Tombow markers.

I will share more about the materials as I get the backlog of 3 months of journaling, dreams, Wordles and pictures posted.

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Animals Building Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Oakland Sketchbook Pages

Jack London Square Sketch for East Bay SPCA

I was honored when the East Bay SPCA asked to license my sketch of Jack London Square (in the poster below) for their annual Adopt-A-Thon fund-raiser publicity materials. They kindly offered to pay for the use of the image but I was very happy to donate it for their use. As an animal lover I am grateful for the wonderful work the SPCA does to care for and find homes for animals.

You can click the image to get more information about the event. It will be a lot of fun and if you’re looking for a new family member of the furry variety, be sure to visit the Adopt-A-Thon! My original sketch is and info about it is at the bottom of this post.

.Adoptathon2016-BayWoff-Ad.FINAL-2

I sketched the scene below at Jack London Square of London’s old cabin and the wolf statue out front on a gorgeous sunny day and the shadows were in just the right place. It was one of those sketches where everything just worked. In the background are the high-rise office buildings of Downtown Oakland.

Jack London Cabin and Wolf Statue, ink and watercolor, 10x7 in
Jack London Cabin and Wolf Statue, ink and watercolor, 10×7 in

Categories
Berkeley Building Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Sketchbook Pages

Sketching at the Laundromat

Solano Laundromat, ink and watercolor 10x8 in
Solano Laundromat, ink and watercolor 10×8 in

I haven’t been doing much urban sketching or dream drawing lately, while I try to complete a couple of commissioned dog portraits (that are taking forever) and attend figure/portrait drawing sessions and do other life stuff. But here’s a quickie from sketch night at the laundromat, a favorite place to sketch. I’m glad I have my own washer and dryer so I don’t have to go there to do laundry, but I do enjoy the perspective challenges and patterns of rows of rectangles, circles and black and white shapes, as well as the little still life of soap and baskets.

Categories
Building Drawing Gouache Outdoors/Landscape Places San Francisco Sketchbook Pages Sketchcrawl Urban Sketchers Watercolor

Sketchcrawl 46 – Bernal Heights, San Francisco

SF Bernal Heights Sketchcrawl (original) ink and watercolor in XL WC Moleskine
SF Bernal Heights Sketchcrawl, ink, watercolor, gouache, 7.5 x 11″

When it was time to leave for the Sketchcrawl in San Francisco I couldn’t find my sketch kit containing all my favorite sketching tools. I scoured the studio and the house. No sketch kit. I feared I’d left it at my figure drawing class the day before at the community college where it had probably already been adopted by a needy art student. Sad and frustrated, I cobbled together some pens, pencils, brushes and paints, threw them in a bag and drove across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco.

Catching up with my friend Susan Cornelis who came down from Sebastopol for the day, and connecting with some other local sketch buddies helped me forget about my missing precious pens and paints for a little while. Since I was so late, after a quick walk around the neighborhood, I decided to sketch what I could see from a bench on the porch in front of the library where the final meet up would be. The lamp post in the sketch above was up on the porch too, which is a little confusing perspective-wise, being up about 8 steps from the sidewalk in this hilly neighborhood.

The good news is that I had a great time at the sketch crawl AND the next day when I was getting ready to go out to the studio I picked up the basket I use to carry things back and forth from house to studio and my sketch kit was in the basket! YAY! And I put a “Reward for return” note in the bag with my name and phone number on it in case it ever disappears again.

I think I like the sketch better broken into two separate ones (below). What do you think?

Categories
Animals Bay Area Parks Landscape People Quick Sketch Sketchbook Pages

Random Little Moleskine Sketches

Wildcat Canyon trail trash can, ink in pocket Moleskine notebook
Dog on wheels at the dog park, ink in pocket Moleskine
Meeting Stuff, sketches in pocket Moleskine
Sketch during Father Keating movie, ink in pocket Moleskine
Wildcat Canyon Wildflowers, ink, colored pencil, gouache in pocket Moleskine

Here are some random sketches from hikes and walks with my dog, sitting in meetings, a movie shown in a library and at the dog park. These are all in my pocket Moleskine that I carry with me all the time. Hover over images to read captions or click on them to see them larger.

Categories
Flower Art Ink and watercolor wash Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Walnut Creek

Lilly Pond at Ruth Bancroft Gardens

 

Water Lilies at Bancroft Gardens, sepia ink and watercolor, 5x8 in
Water Lilies at Bancroft Gardens, sepia ink and watercolor, 5×8 in

It was a gorgeous day at Ruth Bancroft Gardens in Walnut Creek when my plein air group visited. I walked around looking at all the beautiful plants, sculpture exhibit (and buildings in the private area we were given access to, where the 105 year-old Mrs. Bancroft still lives). With less than an hour before our session end I finally settled on sketching at the lily pond.

I painted the old barn the last time I was there and that barn sketch is one of my favorites ever.

Here is my sketch with the scene behind it and artist Catherine Fasciato painting a lily with oil paint. I sat right between her and the sculpture, choosing shade first and subject matter second on this very hot, sunny day.

Water Lillies and their sketch at Bancroft Gardens, ink and watercolor, 5×8 in
Catherine painting in Bancroft Gardens

Categories
Berkeley Ink and watercolor wash Landscape People Sketchbook Pages Sketchcrawl Urban Sketchers

Sketchcrawl #44, UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley Center Street Entrance, ink and watercolor, 5x8 in
UC Berkeley Center Street Entrance, ink and watercolor, 5×8 in

I had a great time at Sketchcrawl 44 on the University of California, Berkeley campus. I missed the starting meet up at 11:00 because I stopped at the entrance to do the sketch above (and to be honest, because I arrived an hour late due to my seeming inability to get out of the house on time in the morning no matter how hard I try). Most of the students are gone for the summer but there were hundreds of visitors from all over the world and families doing campus tours with their high school students and large groups of teens in summer programs on campus.

UC Berkeley Sather Tower Campanile, ink and watercolor 8x5 in
UC Berkeley Sather Tower Campanile, ink and watercolor 8×5 in

At lunchtime I met up with Cathy and some other sketchers, and had lunch sitting on white chairs set up for a wedding in front of the Faculty Club. Then I sketched at our meet up spot, Sather Tower, aka “the Campanile,” a tall clock tower in the center of campus. I rode the elevator up to the top and was going to sketch the panoramic view when I noticed someone looking up at the huge bells just over my head. I would have totally missed that sight (until the bells sounded excruciatingly loudly at 2:00 as I was drawing the one bell above). I skipped drawing the panorama since it took so long to understand and draw the bell. Then I took the slow elevator back down and sketched the tower. I only got the top 3/4 in the sketch on the right so added the base with a statue and stairs on the left.

Gary Amaro, Pete Scully and Me
Gary Amaro, Pete Scully and Me

At our 3:00 meet up time I was delighted to spot my friends and fellow Urban Sketchers Pete Scully and Gary Amaro. It was such a treat to see them again and get a chance to look through their amazing sketchbooks. I told Pete I wish I could live in the world he draws. I so love the light and depth and detail in his sketches! Gary’s gouache and ink sketch of a campus building is really gorgeous in person.

Living Room with 2 Rolls of Shredded Paper Towels
Living Room with 2 Rolls of Shredded Paper Towels (my couch isn’t really that yellow…ick)

I’ve missed going out sketching all the time like I used to. 2014 so far has been the year of the dog. Unfortunately, having been rescued from the streets of Taiwan, Millie is not fond of urban environments, making urban sketching with her rather difficult. She shivers and shakes on busy streets so much that her teeth chatter. Even though she did get into trouble while I was out (see above) in the hour before the dog sitter came to take her to the park, I’ve really enjoyed the time I spend with her and she’s becoming a great studio dog (see below).

Studio Pup Millie
Studio Pup Millie

Categories
Bay Area Parks Berkeley Building Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Painting Watercolor

Brazil Room, Tilden Park, Watercolor Painting Commission (steps in process)

Brazillian Room, Tilden Park, Watercolor, 22 x 30 in
Brazilian Room, Tilden Park, Watercolor, 22 x 30 in

When I received an email from a woman in Switzerland, asking if I’d be interested in a commission to paint the site of her wedding (the Brazilian Room in Tilden Park) as a 10-year anniversary gift for her husband I said an enthusiastic, “Yes!” We agreed I would have the painting completed when she visited the Bay Area a couple of months later so that she could hand carry it back to Switzerland.

Brazillian Room, Tilden Park, Original Photo Reference
Brazilian Room, Tilden Park, Original Photo Reference

I visited the site, took photos and we agreed I would use the one above as reference for the painting. Since I shot the photo in late spring it wouldn’t really match the colors and light of her August wedding so I also used my imagination and memory of the park in summer to capture the warmth and strong light of August in the Bay Area. Below are some of the steps in the painting process.

Continue reading “Brazil Room, Tilden Park, Watercolor Painting Commission (steps in process)”
Categories
Bay Area Parks Colored pencil art Outdoors/Landscape Plein Air Sketchbook Pages

Change Is…

Stege Marsh, ink and colored pencils in pocket Moleskine
Stege Marsh, ink and colored pencils in pocket Moleskine

I started to title this post “Change is Good” and then I thought, yeah, but change can be difficult too. As I thought of all the things change is (hard, exciting, scary, growth) I realized that if nothing else, change is constant, it just IS; thus the title.

So what about change? Well, the most obvious change is my blog’s appearance. I’ve begun the process of converting it to a website that will host both this blog, JanasJournal.com, and my art portfolio website, now at JanaBouc.com. It’s a work in progress so please, if you notice any bugs, let me know.

The sketch of Stege Marsh above reflects another change in my life; it’s one of the first sketches I did while out walking my pup. I waited until after we’d walked about 3 miles through the huge off-leash dog park at Pt. Isabel (well I walked 3 miles, she was off leash and probably ran 10 miles running off and coming back). By the time we got to this spot she was happy to rest while I sketched this view along the Bay Trail. I carry a little bag of colored pencils and a small Moleskine sketch book in my bag all the time as it’s lighter than my watercolor kit for long walks so that’s what I used to color in the ink drawing.