One Deer, Two Birds

I had 3 deer that visited every couple of days for awhile. One deer by herself and a doe and fawn together.

For a while my bird feeders were being emptied by by chipmunks. I stopped filling them. I bought a squirrel baffle and started filling the feeders again. Blue jays spend a lot of time at 2 of the feeders but occasionally the smaller birds get a chance .

Winter Visitors

These three were part of a larger group that visited me several times last winter. I saw their footprints frequently but only managed to see the deer a few times.

Painted from a photograph.

Deer Sketches

I’ve had quite a lot of deer visiting the cottage lately.  They come between 6 and 7  in the morning so I have to get up early to see them.  I used to I grab my camera when I saw them.  However  it’s still too dark for photos when they visit so I started leaving  my sketching kit by the window ready to go.

I have a deer block (food)  that is a few feet from the walkout of my cottage. I have to be very still as sometimes they can see me through the window. When they are at the block they are relatively still for a few minutes.

Some will share the block, some won’t. They kick the others away with their front legs.

My bedroom window is right above the walkout. I moved my sketching kit up there. There’s not much light in the room that early in the morning and I didn’t want to take the time to turn on the light so some of the colours got a bit mixed up.

I tried some of the sketches with just watercolour.  I can get get the basic shapes down a lot faster that way but I can make a mess a lot faster too.

Deer Portraits

There have been lots of deer here lately so I have had the opportunity to do some deer portraits.

I did them from my photographs with watercolours and watercolour pencils

Forest Fawn

This is a fused applique I recently finished for the Out of the Box colour challenge.

Forest Fawn

It is from a photograph I took of a fawn that, with its mother regularly visited my cottage in Calabogie.  The deer are quite used to humans and don’t run off as long as there is a bush or  a tree (and sometimes just a long piece of lumber) between you and them and you don’t get too close.

I used machine stitches on the tree trunk and branches for shading then coloured between the stitches using Derwent Inktense Blocks. The leaf detail is hand embroidered.

The Drinker

The birds don’t use the bird bath at the back of the cottage, but the deer do.  Especially during hot and humid weather.  This deer was coming every second day, but I haven’t seen it there lately.

The Drinker

Why My PHD is Not Finished

overnight guest

The crows were making a racket.  I noticed one in the woods and it lead me to the deer.  The deer stayed on the ground for quite awhile before getting up.

I’m up

I watched the deer until it finally walked away through the woods.

After lunch I went by the dining room window and something caught my eye.

Mother deer and youngster

Young deer resting

I’m sure these are the same two that walked through the snow in my yard a few weeks ago.  These two stayed until sometime between 6 and 6:30. They moved once, a little farther away but were still in view when I looked out at 6:00.  When I looked out at 6:30 they were gone.

However, they must have returned at some point because when I got up this morning, they were there, just getting up. I didn’t get a picture as they quickly moved off.

 

 

Watercolour and Pastel

Yesterday I was going to post another of my watercolour paintings.  However, when I looked at the photograph of it I noticed a few things that needed correcting.  I worked on it a bit yesterday and earlier this morning.  I need to photograph it again but I like to use natural light and it is raining.  So instead I am posting this painting.

This painting is done from a photograph I took near my cottage in Calabogie this past winter.  It was a beautiful day and after trying to photograph a Pileated woodpecker that was not cooperating, I walked up the hill and there were two deer posing perfectly for me.  One just stood there and stared.  The other, the one I have painted, moved around a bit but always kept his eye on me.

I planned to do the picture in watercolour and chalk pastels, so I chose rough watercolour paper to work on.  After I sketched and masked out the deer with frisket, I painted the background with watercolours.  I was not pleased with it.  Maybe, knowing I could cover it with the pastels, I was careless.  I did cover it with pastels.  I then removed the frisket and painted the deer with watercolours.  I used some pastel on the deer as well.