Week Two




Madrona Park 
10/6/14
70 Degrees F
5:25pm




I was able to practice my drawing skills with a pen this week at the park. I consider myself an through practice, not at all through talent. when I got to the park I realized I had forgotten the drawing tool I am most comfortable with; the pencil. Instead all I had was a regular old bic pen. Immediately I'm out of my comfort zone, not necessarily a bad thing. Here are some photos of my drawings from the park. I drew a ground plant that I photographed last week and have still not been able to identify. 

                                                    Memory Sketch

                                                    Contour Line Sketch

                           Timed Gesture Sketches: 3 seconds, 5 seconds, 30 seconds and 1 minute

                                                    Diagrammatic Sketch

                                                    Testing ways to use the pen

                                          The actual drawing

My greatest challenge while sketching was translating what I was seeing onto the paper with a pen. I cannot figure out how to shade or decisively make shapes the way I can with a pencil.

It is clearly becoming fall season here in the park this week, the air is drier, and orange can be seen slowly taking over the lively green leaves of summer. The sword ferns have begun to brown at the edges and some are shriveling up, as if they are fearful of the changing weather. Every time the wind blows the sounds of leaves and pine cones falling and hitting the ground can be heard. Along with the sounds of falling leaves are the sounds of several species of birds calling. A new addition to the family of organisms here today can be seen. Several adorable looking, somewhat cliché mushrooms have shot up out of the ground. This could possibly be attributed to by the rain and the shade under the tree cover. They look to be very small meadow mushrooms.

                                                    Small Meadow Mushroom

 At first glance I mistook them for white berries, perhaps fallen from a nearby plant. That plant which I believe is a common snowberry plant. The plant has ovular leaves that are beginning to brown and small spindly branches. It has produced some shriveled, pathetic looking berries as well. 

                                               What I believe is a common snowberry plant

Slightly below the snowberry plant lies a a smaller plant with triangular arrowhead leaves, most of which have wilted in preparation for fall. The plant is small, with only three leaves growing out of it.

                                                    Unknown arrowhead leaved plant

 More pinecones litter the ground this week, and though I am here at the same time, it is noticeable that it has become darker earlier in the day than last week. While I was working on sketching the dark ground plant from last week, a minuscule bug crawled across my hand, it was white and had a small black line across it's back. I believe it might have been a young spider but I am not certain.

                                                 Small bug could be mistaken for a freckle 

 Sean came with me again and he seems to be enjoying his time here, every so often be says "It's so beautiful here" and then talks about how there is almost nothing like this in the big cities he visited while he lived in China. It's been really fun to have him along because he lends a completely different perspective to what I see all the time as a Seattleite. Here's looking foreword to next week!

Week One Madrona Park

4:36 pm Monday September 29th 
Madrona Park
Light Rain 61 Degrees F

Standing here in Madrona Park, the forest around me is moving. Rain is gently splashing against the leaves of the maple tree above me, protecting me from the weather. At arms length is the trunk of the tree, lightly peppered with moss and pine needles. At my feet lie pinecones and acorns, fallen from their respective trees.

 Behind me there is a wall of green ferns just beginning to brown and break with the coming of fall. At eye level behind me is the base of another tree that I am familiar with but do not know the name of. It is still very green and does not show any evidence of preparation for the coming season.

                                                                     Unknown Tree

 At fifty meters, I can see that I am standing near the top of a hill, a fallen tree lies a ways down from where I'm standing. I can hear a bird chirping repeatedly in the distance, and the sound of the wind moving the leaves and branches of the taller trees above me. The area smells a bit earthy. I want to write that it smells wet, however that doesn't seem at all specific, I can imagine that this area would smell more like the plants that inhabit it on a dry day. It is raining today and I believe the smell of the earth is brought out more because of the wetness. As I am writing this, a helicopter seed from the maple tree next to me flew by my face, and I realized that there are many of these pods lying on the ground all around me. After watching the pod hit the ground, I notice near my feet there are two species of small plants that I do not recognize. They are both a dark green, one with round, veiny leaves, and another with lighter more edged leaves. 

                                                        Round leaves

                                                        Edgy leaves
                                                     
The maple tree's bark is rough and has grown in small square sections, it smells rich and dark. There is a large hole right through the base of the tree large enough for someone to stand in.

                                                     A picture Sean took of me inside the maple tree

 Off in the distance the forest looks more wet, and the majority of the visible vegetation is light green, leafy, and close to the ground. In front of me is an odd tree with tall skinny branches that shoot up from the ground seemingly parallel to each other, this tree is surrounded by saplings of various species.

                                                      Tree with tall, skinny branches.

A memory of nature that I remembered while here in the park while it was wet was a time when I was younger and went camping with my parents. We went on a short hike through the woods after it had rained. We walked to a very cool forest with gigantic old growth trees called the Grove of the Patriarchs. I remember the ground being wet and the area having a similar earthy smell to the park today. The Grove of the Patriarchs is a great hike with a neat suspension bridge that takes you over a shallow section of the Ohanepecosh river.The trees there are massive and some of them are around a thousand years old. I was lucky enough to have Sean go with me to Madrona park today, which reminded me how much more fun it is to experience nature with people than just on your own. I had a great day at the Grove of the Patriarchs because I got to hang out with my dad, and I had a fun time today because I got to go on an adventure with Sean. I can't wait to go back next week.