Category Archive

Another greatly magnified cross-section caught my eye, so I promised myself I would draw it fast and finish it tonight. Skipping over detail and still capturing the feel of a thing can be a tough challenge for me.

Playing with SketchbookX. One leaf, four lives.

We have moved along to the spruces. Their needles grow as singletons, instead of in bunches of 2-5 the way the needles on most pines grow, and each needle emerges from a small, long-lasting bump on the twig. See how much I’m learning already? I could not have said what distinguishes spruce from pine until this evening.

Sitka, Picea sitchensis, are the tallest spruce of the approximately 35 species in the genus, and one of the tallest trees overall. In old spruces, the branch nearest to the ground might be 40 meters up. Their native range is mostly north of California (Sitka, as in Alaska, is an accurate common name). And their needles are fun to draw. I felt like I imagine one does when making an architectural drawing.

The needles of this tree are only 2-4 cm long. Like its close relative Pinus balfouriana, from yesterday, they grow in a “foxtail” of closely bunched needles.

“The oldest known dated living trees are Bristlecone Pines more than 4600 years old . . . . Although these trees are classed among the oldest known living things, some shrubs and trees that spread in colonies or clumps from the same root system may be older.”

Going for something a bit more impressionistic. Didn’t capture the feel of rippling waves that the original gave me, but I try, try again.

Also known as the two-needle pinyon. “The most common species on the south rim of the Grand Canyon.”

I plan to get back to the needles once I have my field guide again, but I’m tempted to just draw one of these every day until I have done them justice.

I am visiting family without my field guide, so I picked this up in their yard.