Who correctly identified eye number one?

It's the bald eagle, chosen as our national emblem in 1782. Bald eagles live up to thirty years. They eat fish and carrion, can lift four pounds, are strong swimmers and fly at 30 to 35 mph to an altitude of 10,000 feet. And what majestic good looks: weighing in at 10 to 14 pounds with a wing span of six feet. Removed from the Federal Endangered Species List in 2007, today there exist about 9,700 pairs of bald eagles. 

http://www.fws.gov/pacific/ecoservices/documents/bald_eagle_fact_sheet.pdf

The eyes have it

Okay, this is a test, all you bird lovers out there

Who can correctly identify the type of bird by eye alone?

 Each week, I'll reveal one complete portrait.  

The completed series will be shown and for sale this summer at the Santa Fe Art Show presented by the Morgan Oakes Gallery.

 My first show! I'm stoked.

Taxidermy Bear @ Wildcare, San Rafael

Immature Raven

Sketching with John Muir Laws can be inspiring! Here, therefore, the raven. Ravens can be distinguished from crows by their heavier, more curved bills. Eye color is light blue in hatchlings, grey in fledglings. Feathers of immature ravens have a duller, dark brown coloring.

Sketchbook Project 2013: Memoir

My Sketchbook Project 2013 is in the mail, on its way to the Arthouse Coop in Brooklyn. A show of all the sketchbooks submitted this year will be touring the country this year with a stop in San Francisco July 26 - 28th. My sketchbook was inspired by American choreographer, Twyla Tharp and her book, The Creative Habit. 

"The real secret of creativity is to go back and remember . . . connecting what we're experiencing now with what we've experienced before."

See my archived sketchbooks from 2011 and 2012 (and thousands of others from around the world) at www.sketchbookproject.com/library

Lakeside Garden Center

The sound of the waterfall is a tranquil accompaniment to sketch-making.  

UC Botanical Garden, Berkeley

Back in the saddle . . . it’s been awhile since my last post. Do you ever find that the poorer the quality of the paper, the less inhibited you feel to play with the image, the materials and just have fun?