Thursday Art Walk 316

In Which I Did Another Experiment And There Were Birds

Today is gross. It's in the low 40s (that's in the 4.4-7.2 range for you Celsius folks), it's windy, it's somewhere between a drizzle and proper rain. This didn't discourage the local wildlife, however, since not only were my neighbor's chickens outside (which might be a bad thing as you'll see in a moment), but we've had ducks, cardinals, chickadees, goldfinches, and more songbirds in general today than I've ever seen before a wet spell.

As any wildlife biologist or naturalist can tell you, wherever there is a high concentration of prey animals, you're sure to find predators, and while cats aren't too uncommon around here, they're not the top dog, so to speak.

That honor goes to the birds of prey we have hovering around. During the summer, the chirping cries of the osprey are so common as to be background noise. I saw a bald eagle last week, wheeling near one of the neighboring churches. I see turkey vultures at least once a week, soaring on the thermals from the slowly rotting dump nearby. Sometimes, if I'm walking at night (or if they're being inconsiderate creepers outside at 3AM), I'll encounter an owl - usually a barred owl.

But by far, my favorite birds of prey are the hawks and falcons who sometimes make an appearance, culling the overabundant pigeon flocks with impunity. Often, the crows or ravens will bully our hawks, eagles, and owls (one owl even met a grisly end due to being harried at all hours for several days - they're called a murder of crows for a reason!), but today, one of the larger hawks paid us a visit:

He's on that low branch - see him?

He hung out for a bit, then swooped towards me and vanished.

So that was my morning - coffee and birds. Kinda normal, eh?

But what art do I have to offer you?

First, the lineart of my tubby boi, Dedbert, rockin' that Self-Isolation body...

I've been testing out a new art style - intersecting lines with cross-hatching in different colors, and today, I decided to experiment with that.

"Line Frequency Experiment 1"; sharpie and graphite on legal size printer paper; 2020

I'm not particularly happy with how this experiment turned out - namely because I lost track of which lines were which!!! I just wish it was easier to keep track of :( Still, part of the problem is that I'm not going big enough with my points between lines - if I could increase the distance between lines intersecting, then I could really get some good stuff done, I think.

I'll continue to experiment :)

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NOVEL UPDATE:

I am continuing the work, but since the last update, I've only written maybe 50 words. I'll do more work tonight and onwards.

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Here's what I did today:

• Coffee and banana bread for breakfast - it came out great
• Observed Hawk
• Turkey and cheddar sandwich
• received package: five-pack of black garlic oil tonkatsu ramen (excited about this)
• cleaned up cat vomit (not excited about that)
• Did That Art (exciting!)
• sent a PC off to a new home (also excited for this)
• wrote a blog post
• got into argument with cat over whether or not the ramen is a suitable spot to lounge. She is for it. I am against.
• Cat has adjourned to stovetop. Thankfully stove is not in use.
• Now I'm finishing this post :P

Thanks for sticking with me guys.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC