Costa Rica Sketch Journal ~ July 11, 2008

Here we are on July 11. Actually, half of this day's journal page was written on the 10th, so you'll have to go back in time a day to finish yesterday off (which is actually day before yesterday because I took a TimeOut yesterday to show you the Swamp Book Cover). (I added an improved cover! Go look!)

Since I didn't have anything more to say on the journal page I was writing on the10th, and I didn't have anything in mind to draw, I just doodled in a jungle liana page divider and started the next day's entry.

Okay. July 11th was a big hiking day for me, going for the Ridge Trail. I love this trail, which wanders through deep forest inhabited by lizards; mushrooms (that lacy thing at right is a mushroom!); howler, spider, capuchin and squirrel monkeys; peccaries (forest pigs); and other amazing creatures. One always wants to keep one's nose alert on this trail. Smell something really funky? Freeze! It could be peccaries. They won't hurt you if you don't get between them and their piglets, but they travel in packs and they're pretty imposing. I've never gotten a good photo of one yet, although I've seen them from a distance a couple of times.

I had delightful encounters with agouties, a red-capped manakin, and (2!) Great Currasows. Be sure to click on the little pictures here to see bigger ones. The two female currasows were extremely nonchalant, ignoring me, and I watched them for several minutes with smothered excitement. But in comparing the photo sequence in my camera and my journal entry (which I wrote scarcely more than an hour later) I discovered that I had remembered wrong!

How could it be that I thought I looked up from photographing dung beetles to see the currasows? My photos of the currasows come BEFORE the dung beetles on the camera. Dung beetles were followed by this lovely little manglio seedling taking root on a rotten log. The human mind is an amazing thing. I'll never know what really happened now because the fake memory has totally replaced the real one. I really did those things, but not in the order I remember them. (So much for "truth in eye-witnessing!")

This photo of the currasows, by the way, was the best one I was able to get in the dim light (and it's been heavily tweaked in Photoshop to lighten it up to visibility, starting out as an almost black blob). It's a perfect example of why a journal sketch might be a better means of capturing the moment!

The Ridge Trail emerges into the open on the lip of a high bluff over the Pacific, at Bella Vista Point (see the journal page). Off to the right and way down below is the long stretch of solitudinous beach, and off to the left (not sketched) the trail plunges down at an alarming angle to that beach.

Arriving on the beach breathless but still in one piece, I meandered back toward the trail up to the lodge, admiring hermit crabs along the way. I'd hoped to have time to sketch them and the shells they had chosen this trip, but that just didn't happen. Next time, maybe. I made it back by about 2:30, worn out by my six hour hike.

Daniel had spent the day hanging out in the hammock reading Tollé and nursing his tummy, which was not giving him a lot of pleasure. I sat down in one of the lounge chairs, cheering him up with tales of my adventures, and coloring some sketches in my journal until dark, when the heavens opened again with a marvelous lightning show and downpour. Reminds me of Camelot ~ at this time of year most of the rains fall in late afternoon or overnight when you're happy to see them come.

I've included a photo Dan took of me and Adri, sitting down to dinner. The tables are always beautifully appointed, with different napkin folds, flower arrangements, and gourmet meals every evening, served by candlelight, by friendly, efficient waiters.

Happy hour precedes dinner, from six to seven, and Maikal, José, and Gerardo (not the naturalist), make really excellent mixed drinks. My favorites were piña coladas and cocolocos. These always made me a little goofy, and since I am a bit shy in crowds, this helped me be more at ease (even thought the "crowds" were never larger than eight or nine people, many of whom I'd already met during the day!). What a hermit I am!

As we headed for La Caramba that night under our big black umbrella I had no idea Montezuma was plotting revenge on ME as well as Daniel!

Costa Rica Nature Journal/Sketching Workshop ~ 7

Day 3 of our workshop. COLOR ~ the workshop day we've been building up to!

Before it even began, starting at 5:45am, Jocelyn, Marilyn and I went with Gerardo on a birding trip while Kathy caught up on her beachcombing. (Kathy would have to leave early the next morning, missing the last day of class, and she hadn't spent enough time with the waves.)

The birds were very forthcoming, and Gerardo, tirelessly searching the forest fringe with both naked eye and heavy scope, showed us many special birds (see my list above ~ how about a bare-throated tiger heron? or a green-breasted mango, a hummingbird, with young at the nest!)!

Back at the lodge, after our usual gorgeous breakfast, we prepared to work. Usually my classes contain students who haven't yet worked up the nerve to color their sketches. Not this class! Kathy had arrived in class the first day with scenic watercolors in her journal. Jocelyn and Marilyn had already been watercoloring their journal sketches with great verve. But none of them had much experience working with watercolor pencils, so, after a gentle critique of the previous afternoon's homework (two or more journal pages with attached ephemera plus an improved poem) we launched into the watercolor pencil workbook, Color Your Sketches, with vigor.

Each day of my workshop has its own workbook. I have designed the workbooks to fulfil several purposes: 1) to augment and give background for the instruction I give in class, 2) to provide a place to make notes, experiment with techniques, and in some cases to actually do an assignment, and 3) to give the student a concrete resource to take home from the workshop. Often there is additional material in the workbook for the student to continue working on later. My students appreciate these workbooks a great deal. This workshop has three workbooks: Sketch in Your Journal; Journal in Your Sketchbook; and Color Your Sketches.

We began with a brief journey around the color wheel, trying out swatches and blending colors to get familiar with the use of the pencils. Then we added color to see how that changes the hue, intensity, and appearance of the colors. I showed the students some different ways to get color effects, then I handed out worksheepts and we did a step-by-step exercise adding color to a gorgeous spotted orchid.

Since the students already had experience in watercolor, this class went more quickly than usual so I handed out a sheet of foliage patterns to be pasted into their journals for quick reference. They practiced foliage patterns for awhile. Tomorrow's assignment would be a beach landscape, which would use these patterns (or take-offs on them), so the practice was useful preparation for rendering palm trees and other types of foliage.

By now, we were all well acquainted, and having a great time chatting and working together. All three of my students had joined other resort guests the night before in a raucous card game, joined by a fearless praying mantis which stole the show. I was a bit sorry I'd missed the fun, but mostly I was pleased that my students were enjoying themselves at all levels: the beautiful surroundings, the sketching and journaling opportunities, the classes themselves, and the other guests

The homework assignment for tomorrow would be to produce two or more well-designed journal pages including some foliage, with color added to at least one of the pages. I was doing the homework as well as the students ~ I'm of the opinion that an instructor's efforts can serve as good demonstrations of techniques, styles and ideas, as long as the production of it doesn't get in the way of the student's instruction. In other words, if the students need my input, I don't work on anything during class. If they are progressing nicely at their own pace and don't need help, I use that time to color my own sketches or to make examples of what is needed for the assignment

After class, I took up my journal, water bottle, and camera and headed up the Carablanca Trail (see the map) to see what I could see. There were still a couple of hours of light, and I wanted to get misted by a waterfall and see if I could spot some wildlife. Check out my journal page to see what I encountered!

Guests are given a map of the El Remanso forest trails and beach when we arrive, and I glued it onto a page in my journal so that I would always have it handy. So far on this stay at El Remanso, I'd only been down to the beach, so a forest walk was high on my list of adventures.

The forest here is beautiful, with giant buttressed trees ~ buttresses are fin-like ridges at the bases of trees . Buttresses spread out like fingers, helping to support the tree over a wider area of ground. There are lots of palms and vines. Up in the trees you are likely to see monkeys if you are out for even a little while. Agoutis, like long-legged, long-toed rabbits (see my sketch), browse in the underbrush, and peccaries (wild pigs) roam the forest in groups of up to forty or fifty. There's no need to be afraid of them if you don't threaten them.

Flashes of red in the forest are likely to be passiflora flowers. They are about 4" across and look like brilliant scarlet stars hanging on vines. Insects and frogs fill the air with chirps and buzzes and high buzzing whines ~ with ventriloquistic qualities that make them next to impossible to track down.

By now, it was almost dark, so I got out my little flashlight (it fits on the bill of a cap, and makes lots of light) I got back to the lodge in time for a mango smoothie and lots of good conversation with my estudientes and the other guests before dinner.

NOTE: Kathy, Marilyn and Jocelyn, Adriana, Gerardo and others: I'm telling this the way I recall it and from notes in my journal. I may not always get it right, or you might want to add something to the tale, so please feel free to comment on ANYthing, with observations, your own tidbits, or corrections if I'm wrong about something. I value your input.

3rd Day's Class

April 24
6:11am (today is a half-class from 8-10:30)

Last night, after we went to bed, we were awakened around nine-thirty by firecrackers – first a series of “poppers” then a great boom, and what sounded like celebratory cries from the workers’ quarters. Very odd in this quiet atmosphere of shirring cicadas, croaking frogs and faintly crashing surf. Only this morning did we discover that the “fireworks” were actually the sounds of a big forest tree going down and the surprised cries of the Ticos who were nearby. First came the cracking pops of sinewy roots breaking, then the boom as the massive trunk hit the forest floor. I don’t remember hearing crashing sounds as it fell. They must have occurred but since I believed it was firecrackers they didn’t register. Wow!

11:15am ~ Class this morning was short – I planned it this way so that students could have two initial long days to get the basics then two short days to give them time to sketch and draw and color whatever pleased them, with coaching from me during the afternoons. After the morning session of watercolor pencil, the students are beginning to feel they are making progress. They are producing quite excellent drawings of plants and fruits, and they seem a bit amazed and pleased at their previously undiscovered abilities. Even Belen is beginning to believe in herself! Yes!

12:32pm ~ I found this mushroom, a kind of stinkhorn, along the trail to the waterfall near the driveway. It was a delicate lacy white encircled by a shiny, gooey mahogany strip which stank horribly. When I cam back by later, it had already begun to collapse, drooping halfway over, and a tan beetle was crawling into one of the holes. I’ve read about these – the stink draws in beetles looking for a decaying corpse, and the beetles spread the stinkhorn spores as they search for something to eat (or something like that). Joel says it has a lacy mantle over all when it first emerges but I so no sign of one. Ephemeral to the max! I drew this from memory, because I needed to get back to my students. The photo shows it an hour later.

I also found this green leaf on a trail. It has been rolled then belted with an extremely strong silk strand, forming an open-ended tube. There is a wad of silk inside, but nobody is living there. The leaf is chartreuse with shiny top and matte underside. Later: The kitchen staff is familiar with this leaf tube. They say a caterpillar built it, and I’m sure they’re correct.

2:24 ~ The sun is blistering hot (although it’s not too hot in the shade) but I went up to the nest of a pauraque (a nighthawk) which we had seen before on the nightwalk and to which Joel had led us early this morning. I think I took a good photo – it allowed me to approach to within about five feet without moving. I’d never have seen it if I hadn’t known it was there [click on the two photos for a better view]. Now I’ll get back to helping my students. I try for a light presence – leaving them to their own resources for awhile, then returning to help and give advice, but not being too intrusive with my presence. It can be a delicate balance.

5:35 ~ I was busy coaching my hardworking estudientes (busy painting their chayote, mango, carambola and heliconia) when Duende, the gardener, heard an animal scream and went scrambling down the hill to see what had happened. After a short search he discovered a boa constrictor eating an agouti (a rabbit sized rodent with long, skinny legs and short ears). The scene of the crime was directly below the lodge on a very steep wooded slope, down a couple of hundred feet (and I in my sandals with no heel straps and a honky sunburn on the tops of my feet, but no WAY I could miss this adventure). The gardener, the kitchen staff, Irené, and Gerardo, the new guide-in-training, handed me down the slope with grace and great courtesy as I slipped and slithered in true touristy fashion, and they made a place for me barely 3’ from the snake as it worked its gaping mouth over the relatively gigantic head of the agouti. It was terrifically amazing to watch, and I took photos and watched, agog, for about half an hour. Adriana had scrambled down, too and watched the snake from above. Here’s the scene from memory, although I got out a reptile guide to fill in the snake’s pattern (a typical pattern, but not THIS boa's pattern, alas!). I was interested in doing this from memory because I'd just been telling my students how important it is to observe subjects closely enough to be able to draw from memory later. I did okay, I think.

As we watched, the boa engulfed the entire head and started working on the shoulders. It threw a couple of loops around the body to squish it smaller yet, although it seemed amazing that it could possibly get that huge hairy cylinder into its sinewy tube of a body. Gerardo estimated it would be another forty-five minutes before the boa could get it all down, and since it was very uncomfortable perching on the steep slope, and the engulfing was happening slo-mo, and the kitchen staff needed to get back to preparing dinner, we returned, with Irené hauling me up the steepest parts while Gerardo shoved discreetly from behind on a couple of occasions. What an adventure! Later: Elyer, the head waiter (who is working to be naturalist guide) says this boa was about 1½ meters long, fairly small.