TENGAN RIVER BIRDS...Who's this?

It's getting nice and cool. My sister Joyce came to let me know it was just as cool outside as inside! I cracked open the door then rushed back for my compact camera, telling Kinya I'd be gone for a spell (He's used to my going off like this for 2-hour photo shoots at the Iwatsuki Park).

Today, I'll just post the bird photos I got, ok? Actually, the first, I'm not very happy about. The Okinawan Sparrow Hawk. I remember the most astonishing shot I got once was when I saw one in the sky that had just snagged a snake. This one's kinda boring--wouldn't come down. The Moorehouse Hen waterbird too--those two, I was just glad to see them out today. altho' they were too small and far away to get good shots. At least the small black bird has its head turned so you can see its bright red face shield & yellow bill tip.

The Egret and Great Blue Heron, Ballerinas of the Sky, I called at the Iwatsuki Park, are here at the Tengan River too. What can I say--the white against the green grass and shimmering water is just plain pretty. And the gracefulness of the GBH just can't be beat either, who seems to naturally combine contrast lines, layers, shapes in dancing around with the egrets.

I have come across many forms of unfamiliar wildlife and usually look them up online to ascertain their names...but there is one bird I just can't get a handle on. This seems to be a good shot, but I can't find a picture of a similar bird in Okinawa...I wonder why?

For now, I'll just call him "My funny bird on Tengan River"...poor little guy. Oh well.

ANOTHER TRY

It was finally a little cooler this morning, a temperature that told me it would be safe to chance a visit back to the park (it was down to 80.6 by 6 a.m.), so I snuck out for a quick walk. I told myself it would not be the former session of stand-under-the-blazing-sun-and-let-yourself-sketch, just a say-hello-to-the-critters-take-quick-photos-and-come-home before it got hot again. The forecast said high for today was 95 Farenheit.

Today I got to see my carp pal Panda, and Gamma the crow (this one was so named because he's so absolutely flat across the top of his head and to the tip of his hooked beak, his form can look like the upper case Greek letter when looking at him from the side!)

The crow drawing I did the other day didn't turn out so good, I wonder if Gamma's drawing today will put me in better...no, the crows don't get mad at me when I draw them poorly; I'm just wanting to draw them better 'cuz I want them to...I was going to say, to smile, but they don't smile, so...caw heartily? I don't know; you end the sentence. (Sorry; some of us are a little lacking upstairs  and need help finishing our own sentences.)

SPECIAL GRACE

The past few years, I've been memorizing the book of Hebrews (I would never have attempted it until I heard a friend, Katie Sisco, had done so.) Last week, I finished chapter 11, and to give myself a little break, I've been doing Psalm 84. Verse 3 reminded me of the feathered friends I've been seeing at the park.

"The sparrow has found a house, and the swallow a nest to lay her young" (Psalm 84:3)

I've sketched many more pictures of the sparrow than of the swallow. They are both little birds, but the sparrow is around all year, whereas the latter is a spring visitor.

Isn't God's faithfulness awesome? He makes Himself available all the time to meet our every need...yet unless we're sensitive to His voice all the time, we may miss some of the special treats He visits us with.

I wonder what whispered blessings He has for me today?

The Kawasemi was at Duck Pond!

The bright blue flash that should've perched on that branch in yesterday's drawing was what I saw on the boulder when I first got to the park!

A few years ago, this is where I'd seen it--on a different rock, when I'd actually been taking pictures of turtles basking. This was my first encounter with the little feller.

The Japanese name, Kawasemi, means "River Cicada", but even the tiny insect-like thing, borrowing rays of the sun in its stunning way, is transformed into the "Flying Sapphire". Couldn't peon created beings reflect the Son to become prisms of living light?

JUST THE BEST...OR BENDABLE?

I guess I was interested, but at the same time, I wasn't interested. I was interested in drawing pretty flowers, but I wanted to draw flowers smiling in the sun, swaying in the breeze. I wasn't interested in just pretty flowers.

Even in this sketch of the pigeon, the field flowers are drawn bent at 45-degree angles, and the petals aren't distinct at all.

Am I doing my utmost to be the best soul I can possibly be? Maybe it would be better to be willing to let God bend me however He wants. After all, He may not be interested in mere pretty souls.

Adversity or Prelude to Blessings?

Rats. The camera shut down after just one picture. I followed the pretty dragonfly toward the pond but then gave up when I spied...a charming little elf-like sparrow peeking out from behind a large rock.

Did he see me? I began sketching him from the shade of the tree he kept hopping towards, and I continued doing so until I had completed the monochrome version of today's drawing (I colored it at home). If the battery hadn't run out, I would've probably tried to photograph the bird--and possibly scared it away, instead of ending up with this.

I started to head out to the other side of the park...when a large insect floated onto the branch above my head. 

This poor thing--called a crane fly--is thought of as a mosquito on steroids, but it does not bite, cannot harm humans, and in fact, lives only 10 to 15 days.

So when I saw it had made the special effort to lift up from pond reeds to the tree branch to get my attention to be drawn too--well, I just couldn't say no. I stood there under the tree branch with my brush pens sketching until my picture was finished--people walking through the park couldn't see the insect so didn't know what I could possibly be interested in...a tree?

I'd started out the day thinking, "Camera died; no pictures today." But I went home with two!

A BROKEN--STRONGER--HEART

The other day, one of my crow friends posed for me, and altho' he looked like an eagle at first, I realized when I drew him, it was not at all the image I sketched. It was of a lonely bird!

Blackie the crow and his mother had always been together, until she sacrificed herself to make sure he got away--from then on, he showed up by himself. Whenever he landed on a branch, he would not feel the familiar second bounce; bathing in the stream meant not seeing a second reflection in the water; and catching a worm meant not feeling a playful tug on the other end anymore. I'd never associated feelings with crows before, but for at least a month, I sensed something akin to mourning from Blackie.

But while animals usually do not care for those of other species, it was Blackie, a crow, I saw fly off of his branch to protect a weak carp from human teasing. It seems the crow with the broken heart had a capacity the other crows did not know.

Could it be God could make you better than what you know now, by bringing situations in your life that break your heart? Hm.

PRETTY BLUE BIRD

The other day, Peter--that's the name of my pretty blue Kawasemi friend--came to the branches of Step Creek.

"I won't take a picture of you," I told him; "The other birds--I can photograph them, so all I need is something to get me started if I want to sketch them; but I don't photograph you. You know that. (I promised not to take any pictures of it, and since Dec. 2020 I have not.)  Can you hold still so I can draw you real good?"

Sometimes God just wants us to sit still, I think, so he can bless us real good.

HE SEES LITTLEST BIRDS

An art-loving friend saw my bird drawing from imagination and sent me a photograph of actual birds with brightly colored plumage, saying she'd found them! I guess they'd been singing for her too. I thank God for friends like this.

Even if most people never see them or know about some of the encouraging things they do, I guess the important thing is that a heavenly Father makes eternal records of everything HE sees, isn't it?

SINGING BIRD

I always thought the birds outside my window sang the prettiest of all Japan. I think they were sparrows, but I never saw them, so I'm not sure.

Last year, when trying to do gesture drawing of the sparrows at the park, I couldn't photograph any of them, so I just decided to draw a picture of one of those birds outside my window completely from imagination.

Something with a bright, cheery message like they always give me must be pink and purple, emitting rays of bright gold, don't you think?

BRUSH PENS? THAT WAS FAST!

It's raining again--sigh. Do You want me to stay home and put up some other things on the blog, Lord?

Last year was the time I began experimenting with these brush pens, and I had to post some drawings with them, Altho' before brush pens, I'd been spending quite a bit of time drawing endless detail with colored pencil, I found I could work pretty quickly with these, and they gave me much brighter color than the pencils. Here are some of them:

Turtle bubbles, two carp...Basking mallard & reflections on pond surface...After dentist visit, promised romp at the park

Crow surveys field...Teal fly lands on red leaf atop black boulder

I asked Kinya yesterday to order some brush pen replacements online for me. I thot it would be at least a few days, but I guess the company branch just happened to be making deliveries, because the doorbell rang, and they were just delivered!

The only thing I know faster than that is when God answers before I call.

This feller seemed to want to know what I was doing, so. I let him see--I was sketching a red dragonfly!

It's the Same Fountain, A Different Angle

I mentioned the "Gesture Drawings" and the fountain in the May 28 post.

I looked back on gesture drawings done at that fountain. I'd seen a mallard on the dark, damp side of the boulder, looking for bugs, I think, and quickly sketched it then with watercolor brush pen.

I decided to touch it up a little with color pencil to post it today--it looks like I won't be going to the park; it's forecasted to rain all day.

To carp, mallards, turtles, or toads, who are swimming in water anyway, it shouldn't make that much difference, but...

The same day I did the gesture drawing of the mallard at the fountain, I also did a quick sketch of Barry, a great blue heron who came down to the lily pads of Deeper Pond on the other side of the park, so I decided to post that too, adding some color pencil to that as well. 

HEEYO BIRD, DITTO BIRD

Do you remember "No Problem Telling Them Apart" (April 14 post), in which I'd mistaken a Dusky Thrush for another bird? THIS is the friend I thought I was drawing! Debonair, isn't he? I call him "Hero", because the Japanese name is the "Heeyo - bird", for its signature call.

I don't say "HEEYO," but "DITTO." That is, once after a friend's prayer, feeling "me too," I said, "ditto, God," My friends chuckled because that was the first time they'd heard anybody use it like that.

I guess it felt natural to use "ditto" because much of my communicating with God is done while journaling--writing.

Got it. New verse to that song: "His eye is on the Heeyo!"

A Few More from February, Actually

Here are several other experiences from my short time in Okinawa. Let me post their drawings first then tell you a little about the multiple drawings in the second.

The first is a quick sketch I did of a young mother my sister Janice met on the plane on her way to Okinawa. Apparently, she is an Okinawan married to an American, sat down at the piano in our living room--Janice asked her to sing and play for us, and when I saw her child's response and saw Janice pick her up and rock her, I couldn't stop myself from drawing the scene.

Junko Filllmer, the second person, also married to an American, took Janice and me to a historic site as well as to an art museum on a day when Joyce was busy with music lessons. The historic site she took us to was an old castle ruin with beautiful ocean view.

The samurai character in the top left? Videos showed how an Okinawan lord, Amawari, long thought to be a traitor, might have actually been a hero! God seemed to whisper: "Sometimes, truth can be unearthed decades later--sometimes. But your Everlasting Father sees all the time what is happening; don't worry about what other people think and just live for My Eyes."

Another reason this was exciting is because Junko and the Amawari account continued something "My brother" Brian told me about in Ishigaki a few days earlier. I e-mailed Brian and told him I heard the entire story.

Bokuten, a gifted Okinawan blockprint artist, was featured at the art gallery Junko took us to. My sister Janice went shopping at shops nearby and let art lovers Junko and me spend as much time as we wanted ogling all his things (he does more than just blockprints).

Oh, of course his work was way better than my drawing of it; It's just that the blue rock thrush (iso hiyo dori) showed up outside the window at the place Junko took us to for lunch, and it was in one of Bokuten's prints, so I just wanted to post it here. Besides, that's my favorite theme of Bokuten' works: coming out of the shadows onto a sunlit beach area.

Anyway, thank you, Lord, for such an enjoyable day.

DARLING STARLING

Where did I get the idea it was an autumn bird? The starling has been around quite a bit awhile now.

The other day, I sketched one looking towards the top of a tree at Far End.

These birds, like the crows, don't hold still for very long. For today's picture, I tried to stare hard at two starlings so I could sketch them quickly and touch it up later, but for one of the birds, I ended up sketching only the shell, and it looks more like the outline of a sparrow than a starling.

I wonder if Starling chicks look a little like sparrows? I wonder if I can pretend? Nah...

LATE BIRD

I really wanted to draw this for Koree but couldn't get it done in time for posting it for the Growing Fish post on May 3. It's there now. Sorry I was a little late, Koree.

I've heard the early bird catches the worm. Well, the late bird caught a large fish, so maybe that wasn't so bad?

June...you got it all wrong...

Perspective Changes Lots of Things

"You sketched the blue Kawasemi and the blue-vented butterfly. Can you draw me? I'm blue too!" I seemed to hear, "...but you can't see me, can you?"

Oh. There, near the bottom of the twig in the water, was a dainty damselfly the thickness of a thread.

"Most people won't draw or photograph something as small as me either..." Did I sense the damselfly sigh? "Oh well; just thot I'd ask."

"Okay; okay. Tell you what. I'll draw you up close, so you'll look real big." The damselfly wasn't sure she should let herself hope.

And...see? The tiny thing looks bigger than the butterfly or Kawasemi!

UPSIDE DOWN

Well, I'd sketched them swimming in the creek/pond, relaxing in the sun/on the boulders, foraging in the ground, standing on one leg...when a mallard came to the edge of the pond seeming to ask to be drawn again, I wondered how I could draw them this time? But when he went back to his buddy and the two began looking for bugs on the pond floor, they gave me the pose I needed. I took this photo then drew the picture later.

Yeah, God wants us to gain perspective, but to get it to us, sometimes He needs to put us--not just the mallards--in topsy-turvy situations!

Disappointed? They'll be Happy!

The neck was too thick, the tail much too long, the iridescence wasn't showing...the pigeons are actually beautiful--what was wrong with me...why couldn't I get it right...why was it looking like this?!...I wanted to throw away my drawing.

"Just finish it. I can talk to them," the Lord whispered to me. "I'm sure they'll be perfectly pleased to know there's an artist who cries not to be able to portray them as beautiful as they deserve, June."

I added the little yellow butterfly I'd seen flying around the pigeon and showed her the drawing the next time I went to the park, hoping she wasn't too disappointed with it. Actually, I'm hope it was the same bird.

The Mukudori Looked Heavenward

Saturday afternoon, it was the trill of the tiny Shijukara (Japanese Finch) that called me to the hill at Far End. But while looking around for the background, context in which to draw the bird--who kept hopping from one tree to another--I saw the gutsy Mukudori (Starling), ambling toward a tree and looking up towards the top of it. The greenery at the foot of the tree, the black and white of the bird, the rough brown trunk, the paralell shapes of the bird and the tree trunk...before I knew it, I found myself whipping out my memo pad and sketch brush and quickly scrawling outlines of what I wanted to draw.

What I've taught myself to do is to make really lousy sketches at first, mostly drawing things I have to remember about the living thing, which I know will probably take off in a few seconds. If somebody looked at my drawing then, they'd think elementary kids could draw better, and feel sorry for me but leave me alone because I'm not hurting anybody.

That's probably why most artists don't want people looking at their work until they're done; a lot of their things look ugly halfway through. That's the way it is with children of God, isn't it? Until Glorification, some of our hearts look kinda ugly, like elementary kids tried to draw us.