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Text of the page (random words):
n of meadowlarks to my beloved park point isabel i once again wondered why birds do that instead of letting the thought go as usual i decided to follow my curiosity and that lead me down unexpected rabbit holes to some fun drawing joy and surprises yes i m easily amused video by mary barnsdale at pt isabel richmond ca first i learned that the head bobbing is called translation huh yep same word almost completely different meaning translation as used in biomechanics means moving an object linearly from point a to point b no turning translation and optical stabilization i wondered if birds were doing something similar to spotting what dancers and ice skaters do to avoid dizziness when spinning dancers focus their eyes on one spot as their body turns then quickly snap their head to focus on that spot again but nope as you can see in my diagram above the bird s head stays still in one place as its body and feet move forward then the head snaps forward to catch up they do this for image stabilization not to prevent dizziness when humans move forward and the scenery changes or when seeing something move towards us our eyes constantly make micro moves to focus see this youtube video for more about human vs bird vision when walking and flying but birds eyes on the sides of their heads can t move like that they have to move their heads instead without translation their vision would be super blurry and they wouldn t be able to spot food or predators western meadowlark colored pencil in a4 sketchbook nerding out birding out even more birds have from 13 25 neck vertebrae meadowlarks have 14 twice as many as humans and giraffes who only have 7 birds necks are so flexible they can look behind themselves without moving their bodies think owls nature and evolution are so amazing bird sketching practice psa we humans also do a forward head bob when we stare at screens sometimes spending all day in that position for every 1 inch our head is forward of our shoulders the load on the neck increases by 10 pounds that puts 30 50 pounds when head is 2 4 in front of shoulders leading to headaches neck pain muscle imbalances etc bob it back bonus for making it to the end for the past year i ve sketched a quickie self portrait every night right before bed this is what happened after the day i d spent immersed in bird things totally silly and improbable anatomy selfie as a bird tags animals avianbehavior birdanatomy birds birdwatching colored pencil drawing headbobbing pt isabel sketchbook pages sketching birds categories art drawing faces gouache painting people portrait strange light weird palette post author by jana bouc post date december 8 2025 2 comments on strange light weird palette experimental palette portrait gouache 10 7 what was i thinking the reference photo 1 had strange lighting from the left was a cold greenish light and from the right a very red light to make the painting even more fun i chose a weird limited palette 2 below are my two preliminary pencil drawings and the painting second layer done i should have left it as it was blocky but fresh instead i labored over it trying to match values and colors to the original despite the crazy palette i forgot how much i love gouache s immediacy vs forever fussing and overworking by the time i decided to stop it was way overcooked and i wanted to start over to get it right i refrained and moved on to the next painting with happier results i don t have permission to share it ︎ viridian green a weak transparent green permanent rose cadmium red light cadmium pale and white from a very old tube with thick sticky paint no black or other dark colors ︎ tags gouache people portrait portrait drawing categories art daylight savings end eve xmas eve post author by jana bouc post date november 1 2025 daylight savings eve 5 8 ink neocolor ii inktense pencils the end of daylight savings is my favorite day of the year it s like christmas eve i love knowing i get a free hour to use as a do over sometime during the day after i ve fallen into a rabbit hole of one sort or another and i fall into a lot of rabbit holes thanks to adhd and its time blindness feature like today i was about to do a peloton cycling class but found myself finally clearing out all the bags and bins of lockdown era flours for bread making instead then i moved on to the containers of dried beans and peas i ll never cook i posted the beans on my local buy nothing group hopefully someone who is still friends with legumes can enjoy some soup making i finally did the fun cycling class but so late that lunch after was at 4 00 pm and finally got in the studio and drew this to celebrate daylight savings end eve tags adhd art daylight savings eve do over drawing illustration sketchbook sketchbook pages sketching time time blindness categories art sketchbook pages goat self portrait because bouc caprine post author by jana bouc post date september 9 2025 le bouc caprine colored pencil and neocolor ii in stillman birn epsilon sketchbook 10 8 yesterday while reading the blue sisters by coco mellors i came across a word i didn t know caprine in a painting of the sisters the artist had given their faces a caprine quality a quick dictionary lookup said it means relating to or resembling goats yikes but i was delighted to find a new word for one of my favorite animals then it hit me my last name bouc also means goat billy goat actually i immediately had to find a goat photo to sketch for the day s self portrait preliminary sketch in colored pencils that i colored over which version do you like better i think i should have stopped with the quirkier more curious more me colored pencil version but i wanted to keep playing and added neocolor ii crayons on top one day i might learn to stop sooner rather than later bouc was my ex husband s family name but i kept it after we parted i ve had that last name much longer than my father s last name a name i never liked and that wasn t even really ours my grandfather a refugee from kiev was given it at ellis island because they said his real name couldn t be spelled in english me if i was a goat photo reference photographer andy bodemir on unsplash com tags animals art colored pencil art drawing goat neocolor ii portrait sketchbook pages categories art if i were an animal self portrait post author by jana bouc post date august 27 2025 2 comments on if i were an animal self portrait coatimundi 8 5 colored pencils and neocolor ii i ve been doing a daily self portrait in my journal since june today s self portrait took a detour i drew an animal i d like to be instead because why not my journal my rules i met a cute young friendly coatimundi when i was traveling around costa rica years ago we had stopped at tilajari a resort where we hoped to stay but all the rooms were taken by the crew of the movie congo which was being filmed in the jungle nearby the proprietor was kind enough to give us a tour of the resort which he had created from a dream and built and landscaped over 15 years after petting the coatimundi i reached up to pet a big toucan sitting on a low branch of a tree the toucan gently snatched the ring on my finger with its enormous yellow bill and started tugging at it our host laughed and told me these toucans were trained to steal gold i guess he figured out my ring was silver because it released my finger and flew higher up in the tree coatimundis are in the raccoon family but are not nocturnal like raccoons and they have funny snouts a little like pigs the males are solitary and the females and their young band together in social groups of up to 25 the males only join them during mating season tags coatimundi colored pencil costa rica drawing journal art neocolor ii self portrait travel categories art life in general sketching saved the day post author by jana bouc post date august 17 2025 5 comments on sketching saved the day happy guy sketch from a photo on sktchy app i had a terrible scary day that included a near poisoning of my dog and other misfortunes that left me a nervous wreck finally in the evening i spent some time in my studio sketching this cheery guy from the museum sktchy app that completely changed my pissy mood and i went to bed happy here s what happened a big slob of a pge utility guy came to check my gas meter when my dog barked he threw big chunks of a leftover cookie that was in his pocket who keeps loose cookies in their pockets to her over the fence he tried to tell me it was dog treats but i quickly saw it was pieces of an oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookie i knew chocolate was bad for dogs but i learned that 7 8 raisins or grapes are enough to cause death from kidney failure i couldn t tell how much she ate before i found the mess of chunks and crumbs and cleaned it up the internet said it was a veterinary emergency and to immediately call the aspca pet poison control center i paid 95 to spend an hour on the phone with them while the toxicologist and vet were consulted and i was on hold i made an urgent care appointment to have her stomach pumped finally the poison control doctors decided that if she ate less than 7 raisins we could watch and wait for 48 hours so i cancelled the urgent care vet appointment then i made the call to pge to report his awful behavior and that he put a bag of his trash including a brief relief urinal bag and wet wipes and more gross stuff in my garbage can and left trash on the ground pge promised to pay the 95 and any other associated costs and to do something about that guy update good news it s now past 48 hours and she s ok miss millie my 12 year old dog a formerly feral street puppy from taiwan tags dog portrait sketch sketchbook pages categories art book review why i m not there anymore goodbye facebook and instagram post author by jana bouc post date july 15 2025 2 comments on why i m not there anymore goodbye facebook and instagram i knew that mark zuckerberg was a terrible person but after i read careless people a cautionary tale of power greed and lost idealism by sarah wynn williams i knew i had to leave his meta universe this is a must read book for anyone who uses facebook instagram and other meta apps mark zuckerberg sheryl sandberg and all of their henchmen are so incredibly evil and have seriously negatively powerfully affected everything including the last us election they had a huge trump marketing team embedded at facebook before the 2024 election the team produced millions of posts with negative disinformation intended to cause conflicts followed by appeals for money they used the money raised to place more fb disinformation content and more ads the more money trump s campaign made the more money mark made the more information they collected the more they could precisely target vulnerable users the author is a woman who wanted to work for fb as an international ambassador thinking she could help them build a world community for good she eventually convinced them to create and hire her for her dream job and worked intimately with mark sheryl and the top leaders for about a decade the book is fascinating and shocking and the author is a really good writer her new zealand accent makes her narration of the audiobook seem charming even as it details the horrors and nightmares she personally experienced and witnessed within fb and around the world as they interfered with international elections civil rights and government regulations it s so much worse than i could have imagined pure evil ps while i m no longer posting to fb and ig you can find me on my blog and my substack i m loving the inspiring art community on substack tags facebook meta categories art faces gouache painting people portrait gouache portrait of taylor kinney from chicago fire post author by jana bouc post date june 4 2025 taylor kinney as kelly severide from chicago fire on tv gouache on paper 9 7 i know this was a silly project but there s something about this guy on this show that i find intriguing in an odd sort of way so i painted him in gouache i have no idea what he s like in real life but it amuses me how on the show he always has this derpy slightly perplexed expression like he isn t quite sure what s going on around him also that when he started on chicago fire he played the angry bad boy and now he plays a kindhearted husband and friend while still doing all the badass fireman stuff i find it interesting that he was once lady gaga s boyfriend it s a little hard to picture them together she s such a powerful persona chicago fire and chicago med are both dumb guilty pleasures i enjoy my usual tv fare is britbox european detective shows and nordic noir reference snapshot from tv tags chicago fire gouache gouache painting gouache portrait kellly severide portrait taylor kinney categories art faces gouache painting people portrait my bestie b being silly portrait in gouache post author by jana bouc post date march 11 2025 4 comments on my bestie b being silly portrait in gouache b being silly gouache on paper 9 6 my bestie b was giving away an arm chair and my sister asked for a photo of her sitting in it to get an idea of its size so she perched in the chair made a face and took a selfie i cropped it down to just her pretty face to try to capture her sense of fun in a painting after 3 drawings i finally got everything at the right angles my brain kept trying to straighten everything out and make it symmetrical then came 3 paintings the first one went directly in the trash the second one was better but when it reached gouache s ugly stage i lost my confidence and started over again this is the third one i can see a few things i could fix if i kept working on it but my current goal is to stop painting sooner rather than too late also i m using gouache these days partly because it doesn t allow the forever fiddling that oil does at a certain point gouache just says nope and stops cooperating if you try to keep adding paint or fiddling tags faces gouache people portrait categories art faces gouache painting people portrait brian from police it department gouache portrait post author by jana bouc post date march 1 2025 7 comments on brian from police it department gouache portrait brian from it gouache on paper 9 12 his name isn t really brian i took a photo of him from the tv screen when i watching a european detective show on britbox because i found the colors mesmerizing i don t remember which show it was but he was the sweet smart guy who could always be relied on to find the solutions on his computer even though most of those european detective police procedural shows follow a similar formula with a similar set of characters like the sweet it nerd guy i still thoroughly enjoy them photo reference from the tv it was challenging but fun to draw and paint from the above photo reference i really wanted to capture his sweet expression and the vivid colors it took me 4 drawings and then starting over after abandoning a painting before i was satisfie...