I love collecting odd bits from life — sea glass, bee hives, a turtle shell, and pinecones among them. Our cabinet of curiosities lives on the windowsill in the bathroom. Naturally, we visit it daily.
The cicada exoskeleton I brought from D.C. two years ago, after the last time billions of the insects emerged from the ground. The wings in the liqueur glass were collected from the 2004 cicada exodus. The heron skull was found under the tall trees of the heronry, a block away from us on the Island. The tiny shells are from the sands of Australia and countless beach walks closer to home. (Perfect sand dollars, like the miniature one here, are abundant along Puget Sound’s Sinclair Inlet on the Port Orchard side.)
The heron skull came in handy this week as I was drawing birds with DrawaBox. You know . . . the skull helps me understand the head in the reference photo. I turn it over in my hand and feel its weight, texture and pointy bits. There’s also value in being on the spot, making sense of the environment. I paid a visit to the heronry daily. And, recorded the sounds of herons nesting — that helps too.
This week I also came upon that seagull’s wing (sans body) in the Grand Forest. Great! Another reference for drawing — and possible addition to our windowsill. But it needed cleaning up first and a couple of hours later, the internet finally had dissuaded me from DIY taxidermy. Only a few feathers then.
I really love this part of drawing and illustrating — the collecting and researching. I want to understand the anatomy so I can draw the bird!
But, all this collecting and researching has the opposite effect. I don’t get around to picking up my pen to draw. My overthinking problem in a nutshell.
The antidote? Follow the rules of DrawaBox: get in there and do the homework to the best of my ability. I struggle. My drawings are ugly. I’m uncomfortable moving ahead without getting them right. But, I know this drawabox regimen works.
I tell myself, draw those ugly birds. Later you can collect them in some kind of cabinet of drawing curiosities. If you want, you can even visit them daily.
A closer look: Only a few feathers then.
