Sketches from "Nature: Niagra Falls"

We're back in the Viral Sketchbook; darn thing is so big, I feel like have an entire Sketchbook left to fill while being more than halfway through this one.  But I got into something of a groove this time (the trick is a really soft, dull pencil it turns out) and I hope to keep it up.  

"Niagra Falls" was a surprisingly good episode; I like the ones that focus on a whole ecosystem and a wide variety of animals.  This one also had interviews with local scientists, including Paleoartist Jenna McGuire, and that was incredibly cool.

(Hey, WNET, are you planning an episode on The Maine Lakes and Mountains Region?  Because if you want help from a local artist... 😅) 

Trish and that One Viral Sketchbook

A good piece of advice I have learned in my forty..... something* years is this: Just because something is popular does not mean it is good.

Behold, because curiosity got the better of me, that Viral Sketchbook from TikTok:

 

Hoo boy. Where to start.

Well, the cover's pretty sturdy.  It has a nice soft fake-suede feel to it.  The binding is *pretty* good, and it is indeed a lot of pages for the price.  

Except those pages are practically tissue paper.  

I'm serious, they are unreasonably thin and wimpy.  Wimpy in that this paper couldn't make a cut in an overripe tomato.  Thin in that I dot an I while writing in the poor thing and can see the imprint three pages later.  I use my trusty ballpoint pen, but the most appropriate media for this book is None.  A cheap Crayola marker left uncapped in a junk draw for thirty years and in it's dying breath of ink could bleed through the pages.  Fresh markers are obviously a no-go and you can forget about watercolors.  Pencils are fine if they are very soft, and not sharp. 

So in other words, maybe this is a good Sketchbook for somebody out there but not me; none of my preferred drawing techniques work here.  Unfortunately, OCD is a hell of a thing and so I have a sickness that makes me never abandon a Sketchbook in progress.  I'm sticking with the Viral Sketchbook even though it's a struggle.  Note that while scanning this Sketchbook (also a real pain because of how big it is), I have a sheet of white card paper between the pages because otherwise you'd see drawings from the next three pages.  Argh.

Well, anyway, here's "Nature: The Burren, Ireland's Kingdom of Stone", or my sketches of same:

Next time - more sketches from "Nature" episodes, probably!

* - Well, it's like this. I turned 42, which should've been a huge deal, the very week the United States started taking Covid-19 semi-seriously and went into lockdown.  So... yeah.  It's not just me, turns out other Mid-March birthday-havers who remember that experience seem to all be sharing a weird feeling of "what is time, even".  Also I am astoundingly bad at math.  So I don't really know how old I am.  Wait a moment...  Oh, hey, I'm not fifty yet!  Cool!

Sketches from "Nature: Dogs in the Wild"

 This was a really good multipart episode because it focused on rarer, lesser-known canines.

Sketching from Nature - "The Elephant and the Termite"

I promised you charismatic megafauna didn't I?  You can't get more charismatic than elephants; I honestly don't know what we humans did to deserve living alongside them.

And this episode helped me get right into my next Sketchbook!  I just happened to pop into a Five Below for the first time ever and it turns out they have a good selection of art supplies.  I got a really nice, really thick watercolor Sketchbook that's seen me through most of this year; an HQ Fine Stroke. I got two because they were, in fact, below five dollars each.  And that was a good move because they're every bit as good as the old reliable Strathmore Visual Journals.  Anyway, back to elephants!

Sketching from "Nature" - "The Alps" and "Scotland's Wild Heart"

I have a pair of very beautiful episodes this week.  First up is "The Alps, Winter's Fortress".  You'll notice in the pages with the Chamois, I wasn't kidding when I said this Sketchbook was handmade and likely one of a kind.  A beautiful home for my silly drawings.

"Scotland's Wild Heart" is another particularly beautiful episode - and I went ahead and drew some friends from the opening and closing credits.

Sketching from "Nature" - "Woodpeckers" and "The Egg"

I of course like the episodes of "Nature" that cover the big famous Charismatic Megafauna (and I happen have an episode like that coming up for you later).  But I LOVE the episodes that focus on the little guys; especially animals I think I know by heart.  The delightfully entitled "Woodpeckers, the Hole Story" is just such an episode.  Turns out our little treekeeper dinosaur friends are at least as important architects of the ecosystem as beavers and termites.

 

I'm pairing this episode with "Sir Attenborough and the Egg, Nature's Greatest Invention".  This was an incredibly good episode.

Sketching from "Nature" - "Santa's Wild Home"

 Happy Christmas in July!  As you know, I enjoy sketching from nature documentaries and I have a big backlog of sketches from "Nature" episodes to share here.  Today, we're going to Lapland in these sketches from... last Christmas.  Yikes.

These and the next few batches of sketches are from a nice little handmade Sketchbook I got at a New Agey store ages ago.  I'd love to recommend it but I think it's one of a kind.  I liked it, though, and it was a lot of fun to draw in.

Sketching from "Nature: Season of the Ospreys"

This was a really good episode. Almost as good as "My Life as a Turkey". Almost.

Sketching from "Nature: Big Bend"

 My New Year's Resolution is to exercise every other day and sketch every OTHER other day.  If that makes sense?  Anyway, here are sketches I drew while watching the very beautiful "Nature" episode "Big Bend, The Wild Frontier of Texas". 

I drew these sketches (as well as the National Dog Show sketches and all the Botober misadventures) in my Arteza Watercolor Sketchbook.  And this Sketchbook is very very nice.  So nice, in fact, that I've started using another one right after filling this one!

Sketching Along with "The Living Edens" and the Sci-Art Tweetstorm

Symbiartic's Science Art Tweetstorm is back!  Today is technically the last day of the event, so I'm sharing sketches I drew while I watched "The Living Edens: Manu, Peru".

The above drawings were on the last few pages of my Articka Note Sketchbook.  The next batch are on the first few pages of my current Sketchbook, the Ohuhu Marker Pad.  Both are square, take ink and pencils nicely, both are okay with watercolors, and both call to mind the Illo Sketchbook.  So far, I'd put all these Sketchbooks on basically equal footing.

Also, the best way to combat "first page blues" is to go straight from one Sketchbook to the next and the second best way is to find reference of one of your favorite animals and draw their butt.

(Say why didn't any dinosaur books that mentioned Hoatzens told me they are pretty?  Because darn, that is one beautiful bird.)