I‘ve always liked drawing feathers. Attempting to capture their delicacy and weightlessness with graphite. Here I’ve included a little drawing of feathers from my sketchbook with a series of photographic studies, again playing with light and shadows. *Hope you’re not bored with all my monochromatic posts of late, I actually do love colour! *
(click on images to enlarge)
(I ♥ the creamy, thick drawing paper in a Moleskin sketchbook, it feels incredibly luxurious.)
All images © Karen McRae
design
Flight of the Maple Keys
The lacy propellers of the maple keys have always reminded me of insect wings. When I started photographing them with shadows they kind of took on a life of their own with the wings doubling up and the stems turning into little antennae. Sometimes things come together in a way you don’t expect. (Click on the images to enlarge.)
All images © Karen McRae
Portrait Mashup
Yesterday’s photo shoot was done under moody grey skies with a beautiful subject and a few brief seconds of sun. This can result in some really interesting lighting. Not as much sun as I would have liked but we are into the grey days of fall. Welcome to October. 
All images © Karen McRae
Shooting Fall and Milkweed Wishes
I marked the first day of fall by going out to shoot some bursting milkweed pods. Sending you all wishes on the wind, use them as you like…
All images © of Karen McRae
Stilt-walker
A little drawing from my sketchbook today.
All images © Karen McRae
Avian Architecture
So I have a little nest collection. Yes, along with collections of rocks and decaying leaves… but you have to admit they are pretty cool. And all so different. I don’t know what birds built all these nests but everyone does it their own way. Little architectural gems. (Click to enlarge images.)
It’s the Same, Only different…
I know I just posted some of these leaf studies but I’m sort of taken with them right now. These are different images converted to black and white and I kind of like the results.
In The Works
A painting in progress. Oil, Conté and Mylar on board. Not the best photographs but you get the idea…it’s what’s happening around here today…
Delicate Decay
Fading Magnolia Leaves
I’ve been collecting gracefully decaying leaves. It seems that magnolia leaves are ideal for this. They fade away slowly leaving behind a beautiful structure of veins. They photograph very nicely and today I was photographing them in the late afternoon with the sun streaming through the window. The tangle of leaf skeleton makes for amazing shadows. (You can enlarge each image by clicking on them.)
draw and shoot 